California Legislation
Please see our Enacted Legislation page for all related legislation enacted in 2022.
SB 696 | Notaries Public – Remote, Online Notarization
Author: Senator Portantino
This bill establishes a framework for licensed California notaries to
conduct remote online notarizations, including provisions for the
licensure of remote online notarization platforms by the Secretary of
State and requirements relating to data security and privacy in online
notarial transactions.
CCCC Position: Support
Status 9/21/2023: PASSED Senate and Assembly; enrolled and presented to the Governor.
AB 48 | Nursing Facility Resident Informed Consent Protection Act of 2023
Author: Assembly Member Aguiar-Curry
Description: Existing law requires skilled nursing facilities and intermediate care facilities to have written policies regarding the rights of patients. This bill would add to these rights the right of every resident to receive the information that is material to an individual’s informed consent decision concerning whether to accept or refuse the administration of psychotherapeutic drugs, as specified. This bill would also add the right to be free from psychotherapeutic drugs used for the purpose of resident discipline, convenience, or chemical restraint, except in an emergency that threatens to cause immediate injury to the resident or others.
CCCC Position: Follow
Status 9/21/2023: PASSED Senate and Assembly; enrolled and presented to the Governor.
AB 518 | Paid family leave: eligibility: care for designated persons
Author: Assembly Member Wicks
Description: This bill would expand eligibility for benefits under the paid family leave program to include individuals who take time off work to care for a seriously ill designated person. The bill would define “designated person” tomean any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship. The bill would authorize the employee to identify the designated person when they file a claim for benefits. The bill would make conforming changes to the definitions of the terms “family care leave” and “family member.” The bill would make these changes operative on and after July 1, 2024.
CCCC Position: Follow
Status 9/21/2023: PASSED Assembly; failed to pass Senate. Will not move forward this year.
AB 743 | Remote Online Notaries Public
Author: Assembly Member Petrie-Norris
Description: This bill would authorize a notary public or an applicant for appointment as a notary public to apply for registration with the Secretary of State to be a notary public authorized to perform online notarizations by submitting an application that meets certain requirements. The bill would require the Secretary of State to develop an application for registration and establish rules to implement the bill by January 1, 2028.
CCCC Position: Follow
Status 9/21/2023: Died in Assembly. Will not move forward this year.
AB 847 | Medi-Cal: Pediatric Palliative Care Services
Author: Assembly Member Luz Rivas
Description: The State Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) established the Pediatric Palliative Care (PPC) Waiver in 2009, upon receiving federal approval in December 2008. After the PPC Waiver ended on December 31, 2018, DHCS implemented a plan in 2019 to transition some PPC services to the Early and Periodic, Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit, which is available to Medi-Cal beneficiaries under 21 years of age. This bill would extend eligibility for PPC services for those individuals who have been determined eligible for those services prior to 21 years of age until 26 years of age and would extend eligibility for hospice services after 21 years of age. To the extent that these provisions would alter the eligibility of individuals for these services, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The bill would implement these provisions only to the extent that necessary federal approvals are obtained and federal financial participation is not otherwise jeopardized.
CCCC Position: Follow
Status 9/21/2023: PASSED Senate and Assembly; enrolled and presented to the Governor.
AB 1005 | In-Home Supportive Services: Terminal Illness Diagnosis
Author: Assembly Member Alvarez
Description: This bill would, before the discharge of a patient diagnosed with a terminal illness, require the diagnosing healthcare provider to ask the patient or authorized person if they are interested in receiving information about the IHSS program and, if interest is expressed, require the healthcare provider to provide the information, including an IHSS application, the IHSS eligibility criteria, and the option for a family member to provide care as an IHSS provider subject to the IHSS provider enrollment conditions. If the patient seeks to apply for services under the IHSS program, the bill would require the healthcare provider to provide a copy of the healthcare certification form and to complete the applicable portion before the patient’s discharge. Under this bill, if a patient diagnosed with a terminal illness seeks to apply for services under the IHSS program and receives a healthcare certification form that is completed by a healthcare provider, the patient would be authorized to elect to have the application process expedited by the county.
CCCC Position: Follow
Status 9/21/23: PASSED Assembly; failed to pass Senate. Will not move forward this year.
AB 1029 | Advance Health Care Directive Form
Author: Assembly Member Pellerin
Description: Existing law establishes the requirements for executing a written advance health care directive that is legally sufficient to direct health care decisions. This bill would clarify that a “health care decision” does not include consent by a patient’s agent, conservator, or surrogate to convulsive treatment, psychosurgery, sterilization, or abortion. The bill would confirm that a voluntary, standalone Psychiatric Advance Directive may still be executed and amends the statutory advance health care directive form that the individual’s agent may not consent to placement in a mental health facility, or consent to convulsive treatment, psychosurgery, sterilization, or abortion for the individual. Amendments: Added language that defines “psychiatric advance directive” as a legal document, executed on a voluntary basis by a person who has the capacity to make medical decisions and in accordance with the requirements for an advance health care directive, that allows a person with mental illness to protect their autonomy and ability to direct their own care by documenting their preferences for treatment in advance of a mental health crisis.
CCCC Position: Follow
Status 9/21/2023: PASSED both Senate and Assembly; approved by the Governor. (Chapter 171, Statutes of 2023)
AB 1117 | Hospice Agency Licensure
Author: Assembly Member Irwin
Description: This bill would require any hospice agency obtaining a license to obtain certification to participate in the federal Medicare program within 12 months of licensure and continuously serve patients as validated by data submission to the Department of Health Care Access and Information or forfeit its license.
CCCC Position: Follow
Status 8/28/2023: PASSED Assembly; failed to pass Senate. Will not move forward this year.
AB 1697 | Uniform Electronic Transactions Act
Author: Assembly Member Schiavo
Amend California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act and Uniform Electronic Transactions Act to permit the use of electronic signatures to authorize the sharing of certain medical information. Adds flexibility to authorizations for release of medical information by allowing them to expire when a specified event occurs (rather than on a specified date), and allowing non-electronic authorizations to be handwritten by persons other than the signatory (thereby assisting persons with certain disabilities). Committee amendments added appropriate safeguards, borrowed from federal law, for the use of expiration events as opposed to expiration dates, on such authorizations.
CCCC Position: Follow
Status 9/21/2023: PASSED Senate and Assembly; enrolled and presented to the Governor.
RN 23 09482; AB 118 (Committee on Budget) Health Omnibus | California POLST eRegistry Act
Department: Emergency Medical Services Authority
Existing law requires the Secretary of State to maintain an Advance Health Care Directive Registry through which a person may register information regarding their advance directive in a central information center. The California POLST eRegistry Act requires the Emergency Medical Services Authority to establish a statewide electronic POLST registry system to collect a patient’s POLST information and disseminate that information to an authorized user. Existing law requires the authority to incorporate the Advance Health Care Directive Registry into the POLST eRegistry.
AB 118, the health omnibus trailer bill (specifically paragraph (27)), amended Health & Safety Code §1862 to delete the requirement that EMSA incorporate the Advance Health Care Directive Registry into the POLST eRegistry. An agreement was made that the adoption of the trailer bill to remove the requirement to integrate the Directive (AHCD) Registry into the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Registry entailed the understanding that EMSA will modify the POLST to allow people to indicate if they have filed their AHCD with the Secretary of State.
CCCC Position: Follow; advise as requested
Status 9/21/2023: RN 23-09482 was implemented through Trailer Bill Language AB 118, which is the health omnibus bill. AB 118 was approved by Governor Newsom and chaptered into law on 07/10/23. See Chapter 42, Statutes of 2023.
Federal Legislation
S.1845 | Expanding Access to Palliative Care Act (Rosen, D-NV)
Orders the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to develop and implement a model to provide community-based palliative care and care coordination for high-risk beneficiaries, in co-management with other providers of services and suppliers, aimed at improving outcomes and experience of care and reducing unnecessary or unwanted emergency department visits and hospitalizations (in this subsection referred to as the 15 ‘model’), and that is intended to replace the Medicare Care Choices Model.
CCCC Position: Follow
Status 9/21/2023: Introduced in Senate 6/7/2023
S.2186 | Improving Access to Transfusion Care for Hospice Patients Act (Rosen, D-NV)
Requires the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to test allowing blood transfusions to be paid separately from the Medicare hospice all-inclusive per diem payment.
CCCC Position: Follow
Status 9/21/2023: Introduced in Senate 6/7/2023
S.2213 | Comprehensive Cancer Survivorship Act (Klobuchar, D-MN)
Addresses the health of cancer survivors and unmet needs that survivors face through the entire continuum of care from diagnosis through active treatment and posttreatment, in order to improve survivorship, treatment, transition to recovery and beyond, quality of life and palliative care, and long-term health outcomes, including by developing a minimum standard of care for cancer survivorship, irrespective of the type of cancer, a survivor's background, or forthcoming survivorship needs, and for other purposes.
CCCC Position: Follow
Status 9/21/2023: Introduced in Senate 6/7/2023
S.2243 | Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act (PCHETA) (Baldwin, D-WI)
Amends the Public Health Service Act to increase the number of permanent faculty in palliative care at accredited allopathic and osteopathic medical schools, nursing schools and other programs, including social work, physician assistant, and chaplaincy education programs, to promote education and research in palliative care and hospice, and to support the development of faculty careers in academic palliative and hospice care. A more complete description of the bill and its provisions can be found here.
CCCC Position: Support
Status 9/21/2023: Introduced in Senate 7/11/2023; referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, chaired by Sen. Bernie Sanders. Will be folded into bill package titled Primary Care and Health Workforce Expansion Act in September.