2022
AB 2288 (Choi) Advance Directive & Mental Health Treatment
Existing law, the Health Care Decisions Law, authorizes an adult having capacity to give an individual health care instruction. AB 2288 clarifies that health care decisions under those provisions include mental health treatment and revises the statutory advance health care directive form to clarify that a person may include instructions relating to mental health treatment.
AB 2338 (Gipson) Healthcare Decision-Maker Hierarcy
This bill clarifies that if an adult patient lacks the capacity to make health care decisions, the following legally recognized health care decisionmakers may make health care decisions on the patient's behalf, in the following descending order of priority: a) The patient's surrogate chosen by the patient as provided; b) The patient's agent pursuant to an advance health care directive or a power of attorney for health care; c) The conservator or guardian.
If an adult patient lacks the capacity to make a health care decision, but does not have one of the above health care decisionmakers, a surrogate may be chosen from any of the following persons: The spouse or domestic partner of the patient; An adult child of the patient; A parent of the patient; An adult sibling of the patient;
An adult grandchild of the patient; An adult relative or close personal friend.
SB 1139 (Kamlager) Prison Visitation (serious illness)
This bill requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to make changes in policy related to prisoners who have been hospitalized due to a serious or critical medical condition, including making emergency phone calls available, providing support for a completing medical power of attorney and other forms, informing persons covered by the medical release of information form of the prisoner's health status, and visitation.
2021
SB 353 (Roth): Extends Hospice Palliative Care
Extends SB 294 to January 1, 2025. SB 294 (2017) authorizes a licensed hospice to provide palliative care services concurrently with curative treatment to a person who does not have a terminal prognosis or who has not elected to receive hospice services only by licensed and certified hospices.
SB 380 (Eggman) End of Life Option Act Update
Makes significant changes to California’s End of Life Option Act (EoLOA), including reducing the required waiting period between a patient’s oral requests from 15 days to 48 hours. The changes go into effect on January 1, 2022.
2019
AB 528 (Low): Controlled substances: CURES database
Makes changes to the Controlled Substances Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES). Includes exemption for prescriptions for the terminally ill: “(5) If a health care practitioner prescribes, orders, administers, or furnishes a controlled substance to a patient, who is terminally ill, as defined in. subdivision (c) of Section 11159.2.”
AB 714 (Wood) Opioid prescription drugs: prescribers
Clarifies and narrows the application of current law requiring prescribers to offer a prescription for naloxone hydrochloride. Expressly exempts prescriptions for patients in inpatient or outpatient facilities and terminally ill patients. (Urgency clause effective immediately.)
2018
AB 282 (Jones-Sawyer) – Aiding, Advising or Encouraging Suicide: Exemption from Prosecution
Prohibits a person whose actions are compliant with the End of Life Option Act from being prosecuted for deliberately aiding, advising, or encouraging suicide.
AB 3211 (Kalra) Advance Health Care Directives – Organ Donation
Revises the form language on the Advance Health Care Directive to provide a general check-off box to allow, upon death, the donation of all organs, tissue, and body parts to be donated for purposes of transplantation, therapy, research, and education.
2017
SB 294 (Hernandez) – Hospice Palliative Care *
Effective January 1, 2018, this bill explicitly allows a licensed hospice to provide palliative care services concurrently with curative treatment to a person who does not have a terminal prognosis or who has not elected to receive hospice services. As signed into law, SB 294 essentially creates a “pilot” to observe and measure the effects of hospice providers offering palliative care services. Sunsets January 1, 2022.
2016
SB 586 (Hernandez) – Children’s services Pediatric palliative care advocacy and education
This bill authorizes the California Children’s Services (CCS) program to establish a Whole Child Model program, under which managed care plans under county organized health systems or Regional Health Authority that elect, and are selected, to participate would provide CCS services under a capitated payment model to Medi-Cal and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) eligible CCS children and youth.
SCR 117 (Pan) – Relative to palliative care
This resolution encourages the State of California to study the status and importance of coordinated palliative care and to develop solutions, tools, and best practices for providing better patient-centered care and information to individuals with chronic diseases in California.
2015
AB 637 (Campos) – Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment forms *
This bill allows nurse practitioners and physician assistants – under the supervision of a physician and within their scope of practice – to sign POLST forms and make them actionable medical orders. Read the announcement.
SB 19 (Wolk) – Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment form: statewide registry *
This bill requires the California Health and Human Services Agency to establish and operate a statewide registry system, to be known as the California POLST Registry, for the purpose of collecting POLST forms received from health care providers. Read the announcement.
AB 187 (Bonita): Medi-Cal: managed care: California Children’s Services program
This bill extends the termination of the prohibition against services covered under the California Children’s Services program from being incorporated into a Medi-Cal managed care contract entered into after August 1, 1994, until January 1, 2017.
SR 17 (Jackson) – California Healthcare Decisions Day *
This resolution declared April 16, 2015, as “Healthcare Decisions Day” in California, and urged all Californians to communicate their healthcare preferences and execute an advance healthcare directive. It also urged those who are seriously ill to learn about the Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) program. Read the announcement.
ABx2 15 (Eggman, Alejo, and Stone) – End of Life Option Act
This bill, until January 1, 2026, would enact the End of Life Option Act authorizing an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for a drug prescribed pursuant to these provisions for the purpose of ending his or her life. Went into effect June 9, 2016.