Today's Law As Amended


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AB-1533 Medicine: trainees: international medical graduates.(2011-2012)



As Amends the Law Today


SECTION 1.
 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California needs more Spanish-speaking health professionals. Although Hispanics represent nearly 39 percent of California’s population, only 5.2 percent of the state’s physician workforce is Hispanic. According to the 2010 federal census, an estimated 35 percent of California’s almost 15 million Hispanics reside in medically underserved areas, compared to 20 percent of the total population.
(b) California needs more primary care doctors. Each year, there are approximately 19,500 graduates of medical schools in the United States who compete in the National Residency Match Program (NRMP) or “Match” process for one of the 25,000 first-year graduate medical education (GME) positions (residency training positions). The United States has more GME positions than United States medical school graduates. As a result, an estimated 5,500 International Medical Graduates (IMGs), or 20 percent of the total, enter United States residency training each year. According to the NRMP data for 2011, 94.4 percent of family medicine residency positions were filled. Because not all positions were filled, this indicates that there is capacity within existing programs to accept more IMG residents in family medicine, provided that these individuals are eligible and well prepared.
(c) IMGs legally residing in the United States can be part of the solution for California’s shortage of Hispanic physicians. Between 400 to 1,000 unlicensed Hispanic IMG physicians legally reside and work in southern California. Because they do not have a California medical license, they cannot practice medicine in California. Many work in a variety of roles such as ultrasound technicians, health educators, or interpreters, and a few have retrained as nurses.
(d) There is an existing California training resource that is underutilized. Since 2006, the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) has operated an innovative and highly successful program to prepare English-Spanish bilingual, bicultural individuals who have graduated from an accredited medical school outside the United States to enter accredited family medicine programs in California. The UCLA program functions as a preresidency training program. However, because these IMG trainees are neither “medical students” enrolled in the school of medicine (because they have already graduated from medical school in their country), nor “medical residents” enrolled in residency training, these individuals are not currently recognized by state law as trainees who are authorized to engage in “hands-on” clinical training, at even the level of a medical student, as part of their course of study. The UCLA IMG program accepts a small number of exceptionally promising bilingual unlicensed Hispanic IMGs who legally reside in California to participate in a program lasting from 4 to 21 months, with total time for completion determined by UCLA based upon assessment of qualifications of each program participant. To be eligible for licensure in California, graduates of both foreign medical schools as well as United States medical schools must successfully pass Steps 1 and 2 of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE). Upon receiving a passing score on these exams, medical school graduates are then eligible to compete for a residency position in one of California’s 30-plus family medicine training programs. Once the three-year family medicine residency training program is completed, these licensed family physicians commit to practice in an underserved community in California for up to three years.

SEC. 2.

 Section 2066.5 is added to the Business and Professions Code, to read:

2066.5.
 (a) The pilot program authorized by this section shall be known and may be cited as the University of California at Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine’s International Medical Graduate Pilot Program.
(b) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to prohibit a foreign medical graduate from engaging in the practice of medicine when required as part of the pilot program authorized by this section.
(c) There is currently a preresidency training program at the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, hereafter referred to as UCLA, for selected international medical graduates (IMGs). Participation in the pilot program authorized by this section shall be at the option of UCLA. This section authorizes those IMGs, through the new pilot program authorized by this section, to receive, through the existing program, hands-on clinical instruction in the courses specified in subdivision (c) of Section 2089.5. The pilot program, as administered by UCLA, shall include all of the following elements:
(1) Each pilot program participant shall have done all of the following:
(A)  Graduated from a medical school recognized by the Medical Board of California at the time of selection.
(B)  Taken and passed the United States Medical Licensing Examination Steps 1 and 2 (Clinical Knowledge and Clinical Science).
(C) Submitted an application and materials to the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates.
(2) A pilot program participant shall receive all clinical instruction at health care facilities operated by the University of California, Los Angeles, or other approved UCLA-designated teaching sites, which shall be hospitals or clinics with either a signed formal affiliation agreement with UCLA or a signed letter of agreement.
(3) Participation of a trainee in clinical instruction offered by the pilot program shall not generally exceed 16 weeks. However, at the discretion of UCLA, an additional eight weeks of clinical instruction may be granted. In no event shall a participant receive more than 24 weeks of clinical instruction under the pilot program.
(4) The clinical instruction shall be supervised by licensed physicians on faculty at UCLA or faculty affiliated with UCLA as specified in an approved affiliation agreement between UCLA and the affiliated entity.
(5) The clinical instruction shall be provided pursuant to written affiliation agreements for clinical instruction of trainees established by UCLA.
(6) The supervising faculty shall evaluate each participant on a regular basis and shall document the completion of each aspect of the clinical instruction portion of the program for each participant.
(d) UCLA shall provide the board with the names of the participants in the pilot program on an annual basis, or more frequently if necessary to maintain accuracy. Upon a reasonable request of the board, UCLA shall provide additional information such as the courses successfully completed by program participants, the dates of instruction, and other relevant information.
(e) Nothing in this section shall be construed to alter the requirements for licensure set forth in Sections 2089 and 2089.5. The board may consider participation in the clinical instruction portion of the pilot program as remediation for medical education deficiencies identified in a participant’s application for licensure or authorization for postgraduate training should such a deficiency apply to that applicant.
(f) On or before January 1, 2018, UCLA is requested to prepare a report for the board and the Legislature. Topics to be addressed in the report shall include the number of participants in the pilot program, the number of participants in the pilot program who were issued physician’s and surgeon’s certificates by the board, the number of participants who practice in designated medically underserved areas, and the potential for retention or expansion of the pilot program.
(g) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2019, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2019, deletes or extends that date.