Major Legislative Issues - 2009-2010

Updated –10/01/2010

Instructions for using this page: 

Click on a bill number to find out more; this will take you to the California Legislative Counsel’s Legislative Information Page. Once you’re there:

  • Select either "Assembly" or "Senate" in the "HOUSE" box;
  • Type the number of the bill in the "BILL NUMBER" box; and
  • Hit the "SEARCH" button.

Once you’re there, you can read the most recent version in either browser (HTML) or Adobe Acrobat Reader (*.pdf) format. You may also check the measure’s status and history. To learn more about the author, click on the surname after the bill number. You’ll be taken to the member’s official legislative web site, where the choices are self-explanatory.

CDA Sponsored Legislation Status Staff
AB 2275 (Hayashi) Dental Plans – Fee Caps for Non-Covered Services:  Prohibits dental benefit plans and insurers from capping the fees that dentists may charge for dental services that are not covered by the plan.  States that dentists shall not charge more than their usual and customary fees for non-covered services.  Requires dental plans to provide enrollees with a disclosure statement in their coverage documents informing them that dentists may charge their usual and customary fees for non-covered services, and encouraging them to contact their dental plan or broker for more information.  CDA believes this bill will end an inherently unfair practice that creates an incentive for dental plans to reduce coverage. Signed by Governor Michelle Rivas
AB 684 (Ma) Dental Plans – Penalties for Late Claim Payments:  Increases the interest penalties for late claim payments by dental plans and dental insurers, to 20% per annum for uncontested claims not paid within 60 days of receipt, and to 25% for claims not paid within 90 days of receipt.  CDA believes that current late payment penalties (10-15% per annum for claims 30-45 days past receipt) are an insufficient incentive for dental plans to reimburse providers in a timely manner.   Specifies the process and timeframe by which plans must contest claims, and requires penalties for claims over 60 days past due to be deposited with the regulatory agency. Senate Health Cmte.  Michelle Rivas
AB 745 (Coto) Self-Funded Dental Plans – Patient Disclosure:  Requires a third-party administrator (TPA) providing administrative services for a self-funded dental benefit plan to include specific disclosure language informing patients that their dental benefit plan is regulated by federal, rather than state, law, and providing them with the appropriate federal agency contact information if they wish to file a grievance.  CDA believes that, with the proliferation of self-funded dental plans in California, patients need to be made aware that those plans are not regulated by California law.  Vetoed/2009 Michelle Rivas
AB 2035 (Coto) Self-Funded Dental Plans – Patient Disclosure:  Requires third-party administrators of self-funded dental plans, in the event of an adverse claim decision, to provide the patient with information on the plan’s appeal process, and to inform the patient that the plan is governed by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) rather than state law. Senate Health Committee Michelle Rivas
AB 1783 (Hayashi) Denti-Cal – Change of Location Form: Allows a Medi-Cal dental provider who is changing his or her practice address within the same county to notify Medi-Cal via a change of location form, instead of having to submit an entirely new provider application. Signed by Governor Carrie Gordon
AB 667 (Block) Topical Fluoride Application – Fluoride Varnish:  Ensures that any person, including a non-healthcare provider, may apply topical fluoride, including fluoride varnish, in public health and school-based settings once a prescription and protocol have been established by the dentist responsible for that program.  CDA believes this bill will help expand children’s access to fluoride treatments through school based and other public health programs. Signed by Governor/2009 Carrie Gordon
AB 1524 (Hayashi) Dental Board/Portfolio Licensure: This bill would abolish the clinical and written examinationadministered by the Dental Board. The bill would replace that examination with a “portfolio” assessment process in which an applicant is assessed while enrolled at an in-state dental school utilizing uniform standards of minimal clinical experiences and competencies and at the end of his or her dental school program. Signed by Governor Dean Chalios
AB 171 (Jones) Dental Services – Commercial Credit Products:  Prohibits a dentist, or an employee or agent of that dentist, from arranging for or establishing credit extended by a 3rd party for a patient without first providing a written notice and a written treatment plan. Prohibits the arrangement or establishment of credit with regard to a patient who has been administered or is under the influence of general anesthesia, conscious sedation, or nitrous oxide. Signed by Governor/2009 Carrie Gordon
AB 403 (Fuller) Hygiene WREB:  Relates to dental hygienists examinations and licensure. Provides satisfactory performance on the state clinical examination or satisfactory completion of the dental hygiene examination given by the Western Regional Examining Board or any other clinical dental hygiene examination approved by the Dental Hygiene Committee satisfies the clinical examination requirement, and the satisfactory completion of the National Dental Hygiene Board examination satisfies the national testing requirement for licensure. Signed by Governor/2009 Michelle Rivas
AB 657 (Hernandez) Workforce:  Requires the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, in collaboration with the Workforce Investment Board, to establish the Health Professions Workforce Task Force to assist in the development of a health professions workforce master plan for the state. Requires the task force to submit a complete statewide health professions workforce master plan. Vetoed/2009 Carrie Gordon
AB 877 (Emmerson) Occupational Study:  Requires the Director of Consumer Affairs to appoint a scope of practice committee to perform occupational analyses and prepare written reports on any bills seeking to substantially expand the scope of a healing arts practice.  Held in Assembly Appropriations Cmte./2009 Michelle Rivas
SB 311 (Alquist) Healthy Families – Dental Only Coverage:  As earlier proposed, requires the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, contingent on the receipt and appropriation of funds, to provide dental-only coverage consistent with the federal Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 to children who have private health insurance coverage but who otherwise would qualify for the Healthy Families Program.  Was amended to delete those contents and instead deal with the reimbursement method for  federally qualified health centers.   Held in Senate Appropriations  Cmte./2009  Carrie Gordon
SB 630 (Steinberg) Reconstructive Surgery:  Provides that the requirements imposed on health care service plans and health insurers define reconstructive surgery as including medically necessary dental or orthodontic services that are an integral part of reconstructive surgery for cleft palate. Signed by Governor/2009 Michelle Rivas
SB 762 (Aanestad) Healing Arts:  Makes it unlawful for a city or county to prohibit a healing arts licensee from engaging in any act or performing any procedure that falls within the professionally recognized scope of practice of that licensee. Signed by Governor/2009 Dean Chalios
CDA Opposed Legislation    
AB 832 (Jones) Clinic Licensing:  (BILL AMENDED 5/5/09 – CDA OPPOSITION REMOVED) As introduced, this bill would have among other things required dental offices where permitted dentists use conscious sedation or general anesthesia to become licensed by the state as surgical centers. The bill was later amended  to instead  create  a statutory workgroup of various health care advocacy groups (including CDA) to be convened by the Department of Public Health by 2/1/2010 to consider and develop recommendations for state oversight and monitoring of ambulatory surgical centers.
 Held in Assembly Appropriations Cmte./2009 Carrie Gordon
Other Legislation of Interest    
AB 89 (Torlakson) Tobacco Tax:  Imposes an additional $2.10 tax on the distribution of cigarettes. Revenues collected would be allocated for certain education, health, and child-related purposes.  Assembly Governmental Organization Cmte. Carrie Gordon
AB 2699 (Bass) Licensure Exemption – Temporary Volunteers: Would exempt from licensure a health care practitioner, licensed in another state, who provides services without charge to uninsured or underinsured persons on a short-term voluntary basis, in association with a sponsoring entity that registers with appropriate licensing board(s).  Requires the practitioner to obtain authorization from the relevant licensing board before providing services.  CDA was opposed to earlier versions of this bill, but removed its opposition when amendments were accepted.  Signed by Governor Michelle Rivas
SB 1111 (Negrete-McLeod) Regulatory Boards – Enforcement:  Would enact a variety of provisions increasing licensing board and Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) enforcement authority, including placing more disciplinary information on the Internet, allowing boards to charge a licentiate for reasonable investigation costs and probation monitoring costs, requiring licentiates to report to the licensing board when they are arrested for a felony offense, allowing boards to grant their executive officers the authority to adopt proposed default settlements, etc.  CDA was opposed to earlier versions of this bill, but removed opposition after the author accepted a series of amendments.  Failed Passage in Senate Business, Professions, and Economic Development Committee Michelle Rivas
SB 1172 (Negrete McLeod)  Regulatory Board – Diversion Programs:   Would require a healing arts licensing board to order a licensitate to cease practice whenever he or she tests positive for a prohibited substance under the terms of a probation agreement or diversion program.  Would also allow a licensing board to order a licentiate to cease practice for major violations and when the board orders a clinical diagnostic evaluation.  Governor’s desk Michelle Rivas
Budget

 

 

State Budget/Denti-Cal:  With the state facing enormous budget deficits for the past several years, Medi-Cal optional benefits, including adult dental, have regularly been in jeopardy.  CDA has consistently argued that elimination of adult dental benefits will only lead to eventual higher emergency room costs for dental services, and would perhaps permanently damage an already fragile provider network, although CDA has always been willing to work with all parties to identify reasonable cost savings.  After several possible broad funding solutions (a federal funding “trigger,” ballot initiatives, etc.) failed to materialize last year, adult dental benefits, with the exception of certain federally required emergency services, were eliminated effective July 1, 2009.   Since that time, CDA has been advocating with administration and legislative leaders for alternative solutions that could at least partially restore these benefits, proposing in particular the reinstatement of funding for basic fillings for teeth that otherwise would require more costly treatment and eventual extraction.   However, with the state still facing a $19.1 billion deficit for 2010-11, funding solutions continue to be a challenge.