Calif. Lawmakers To Consider Slew of Health-Related Bills This Month

On Monday, lawmakers returned to the California Legislature for the final weeks of the current legislative session to consider more than 1,000 pending bills, including several that are related to health care, the Los Angeles Times reports (McGreevy, Los Angeles Times, 8/3).

The health-related bills that are up for consideration include:

• AB 503, which would increase the level of charity care that not-for-profit, acute care facilities must provide and tighten hospital reporting requirements (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 8/4);
• AB 1014, which would allow temporary restraining orders to prevent individuals who are suspected of having mental health issues or who are potentially violent from purchasing guns (Los Angeles Times, 8/3);
• AB 1522, which would require California employers to provide workers with at least three paid sick days per year;
• AB 1894 and SB 1262, which would regulate medical marijuana shops (Calefati, San Jose Mercury News, 8/4); and
• Several measures in a package of bills that would in various ways reform how assisted-living facilities operating in California are established, managed and regulated (Schoch, U-T San Diego, 8/2).

The two-year legislative session will end Aug. 31 (Los Angeles Times, 8/3).