Legislation
Each year the California Society tracks 30 – 50 bills in the legislature. We also sponsor legislation to further the goals of our profession. We retain the services of an outstanding advocacy firm to assist us in implementing our legislative priorities.
We will from time to time, issue alerts on this site. None of the work we do would be possible without the strong support of our members who mobilize for telephone and written communication with legislators when called upon to do so by our Government Affairs Committee.
Thank you Members. Keep up the good work.
Bills of Interest
This year the bills we are tracking reflect in many ways the legislature’s reaction to the current severe fiscal climate of the state and its failure to enact meaningful health care reform.
The bills also relate to the current broad areas of employment of many of our members who work in psychiatric hospital settings, non-profit agencies, public and community mental health settings, and independent practice. We see budgets getting tighter at the same time caseloads are rapidly growing in all of the settings except independent practice where many therapists and patients struggle with premature termination of therapy for lack of funds. Despite the shrinking economy there continue to be the usual plethora of good and bad bills dealing with confidentiality, privacy, new licenses, and, in one case, intrusive, overly broad government mandates (SB 368).
The Society co-sponsored one bill this year, SB 296 (Lowenthal) which would mandate that health plans which use mental health carveouts provide:
- for consumers and providers a website containing pertinent specific information about provider lists, appeals and complaints
- for consumers, a mental health phone number on their benefits card which would allow the patient to contact the company during and after hours for information, and authorization for care.
