Bill Text

Bill Information


Bill PDF |Add To My Favorites | print page

AB-809 Healing arts: telehealth.(2013-2014)

SHARE THIS: share this bill in Facebook share this bill in Twitter
AB809:v91#DOCUMENT

Assembly Bill No. 809
CHAPTER 404

An act to amend Section 2290.5 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to telehealth, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

[ Approved by Governor  September 18, 2014. Filed with Secretary of State  September 18, 2014. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 809, Logue. Healing arts: telehealth.
Existing law requires a health care provider, as defined, prior to the delivery of health care services via telehealth, as defined, to verbally inform the patient that telehealth may be used and obtain verbal consent from the patient for this use. Existing law also provides that failure to comply with this requirement constitutes unprofessional conduct.
This bill would require the health care provider initiating the use of telehealth to obtain verbal or written consent from the patient for the use of telehealth, as specified. The bill would require that health care provider to document the consent.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 2290.5 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read:

2290.5.
 (a) For purposes of this division, the following definitions shall apply:
(1) “Asynchronous store and forward” means the transmission of a patient’s medical information from an originating site to the health care provider at a distant site without the presence of the patient.
(2) “Distant site” means a site where a health care provider who provides health care services is located while providing these services via a telecommunications system.
(3) “Health care provider” means a person who is licensed under this division.
(4) “Originating site” means a site where a patient is located at the time health care services are provided via a telecommunications system or where the asynchronous store and forward service originates.
(5) “Synchronous interaction” means a real-time interaction between a patient and a health care provider located at a distant site.
(6) “Telehealth” means the mode of delivering health care services and public health via information and communication technologies to facilitate the diagnosis, consultation, treatment, education, care management, and self-management of a patient’s health care while the patient is at the originating site and the health care provider is at a distant site. Telehealth facilitates patient self-management and caregiver support for patients and includes synchronous interactions and asynchronous store and forward transfers.
(b) Prior to the delivery of health care via telehealth, the health care provider initiating the use of telehealth shall inform the patient about the use of telehealth and obtain verbal or written consent from the patient for the use of telehealth as an acceptable mode of delivering health care services and public health. The consent shall be documented.
(c) Nothing in this section shall preclude a patient from receiving in-person health care delivery services during a specified course of health care and treatment after agreeing to receive services via telehealth.
(d) The failure of a health care provider to comply with this section shall constitute unprofessional conduct. Section 2314 shall not apply to this section.
(e) This section shall not be construed to alter the scope of practice of any health care provider or authorize the delivery of health care services in a setting, or in a manner, not otherwise authorized by law.
(f) All laws regarding the confidentiality of health care information and a patient’s rights to his or her medical information shall apply to telehealth interactions.
(g) This section shall not apply to a patient under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation or any other correctional facility.
(h) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law and for purposes of this section, the governing body of the hospital whose patients are receiving the telehealth services may grant privileges to, and verify and approve credentials for, providers of telehealth services based on its medical staff recommendations that rely on information provided by the distant-site hospital or telehealth entity, as described in Sections 482.12, 482.22, and 485.616 of Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(2) By enacting this subdivision, it is the intent of the Legislature to authorize a hospital to grant privileges to, and verify and approve credentials for, providers of telehealth services as described in paragraph (1).
(3) For the purposes of this subdivision, “telehealth” shall include “telemedicine” as the term is referenced in Sections 482.12, 482.22, and 485.616 of Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

SEC. 2.

 This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to protect the health and safety of the public due to a lack of access to health care providers in rural and urban medically underserved areas of California, the increasing strain on existing providers that occurred with the implementation of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the assistance that further implementation of telehealth can provide to help relieve these burdens, it is necessary for this act to take effect immediately.