Legislation

The CSAP Governmental Affairs Committee recommended to the Board, and the Board concurred on, the following positions with respect to new legislation. 

Oppose Unless Amended: 
AB 236 (Holden) Health care coverage: provider directories
Seek the following amendments:
(1) Remove the provision about removing a provider from a directory if they have not been compensated for at least 5 claims in a year.
(2) Clarify that the burden to maintain accurate provider directories is the responsibility of the health plan and any burden on a physician should be minimized.
(3) Makes sure that when a patient sees an out-of-network physician and only pays in-network cost-sharing amounts, the physician is made whole or compensated at a fair rate.
(4) Include on every provider directory information about an enrollee’s right to timely access to care and who they can contact if the health plan is not meeting that requirement.
(5) Clarify that a physician is not obligated to disclose whether they provide gender-affirming care due to safety, security and privacy concerns.
(6) Ensure that there is due process for a provider if they are mistakenly removed from a plan’s provider directory or if the health plan wrongly concludes the information provided to them is inaccurate.

Support:
AB 470 (Valencia) Continuing medical education: physicians and surgeons
AB 765 (Wood) Physicians and surgeons
AB 815 (Wood) Health care coverage: mental health and substance use disorders: provider credentials
SB 487 (Atkins) Abortion: civil actions
SB 582 (Becker) Health records: EHR vendors
SB 598 (Skinner) Health care coverage: prior authorization
   –SB 598 Fact Sheet
   –2022 AMA prior authorization (PA) physician survey Care 
AB 599 (Ward) Suspensions and expulsions: controlled substances: tobacco
SB 350 (Ashby) Pupil attendance: excused absences
SB 456 (Menjivar) Multifamily Housing: nonprofit corporations: homeless or at-risk youth
SB 509 (Portantino) School employee and pupil training: mental health education
AB 85 (Weber) Social determinants of health: screening and outreach
AB 665 (Carrillo) Minors: consent to mental health services
AB 874 (Weber) Health care coverage: out-of-pocket expenses
AB 1241 (Weber) Medi-Cal: telehealth
AB 1437 (Irwin) Medi-Cal: serious mental illness
AB 1451 (Jackson) Behavioral health crisis treatment
AB 1502 (Schiavo) Health care coverage: discrimination
SB 11 (Menjivar) California State University: mental health counseling
SB 45 (Roth) California Acute Care Psychiatric Hospital Loan Fund
SB 70 (Wiener) Prescription drug coverage
SB 238 (Wiener) Health care coverage: independent medical review
SB 513 (Wiener) Incarcerated persons: mental health

You may view a list of CSAP’s tracked legislation, including hearing information, here. The GAC will meet next on Monday, March 27. 

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