Official Summary Text
AB 2551, as amended, Elhawary.
Health care coverage.
Public postsecondary education: Equity in Higher Education Act: prohibition on violence, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination: student hearings.
A portion of the Donahoe Higher Education Act, known as the Equity in Higher Education Act, provides, among other things, that all students have the right to participate fully in the educational process, free from discrimination and harassment, and that postsecondary educational institutions have an affirmative obligation to combat discrimination on the basis of, among other things, disability, gender, race, or ethnicity, and a responsibility to provide equal educational opportunity. A provision of the act applies to the University of California only to the extent that the Regents of the University of California, by appropriate resolution, act to make the provision applicable.
The Equity in Higher Education Act requires the Trustees of the California State University and the Regents of the University of California to have the primary responsibility to prevent and address conduct that either creates a hostile environment for students on campus or results in differential treatment of students on campus, as specified. The act requires the trustees to, among other things, adopt rules and procedures in the student codes of conduct to prohibit violent, harassing, intimidating, or discriminatory conduct that creates a hostile environment on campus, to prohibit conduct that limits or denies a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the free exchange of ideas or the educational mission of the California State University, and to establish, and require each campus to publish on the campus internet website, reasonable content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions and, if applicable, any advance permitting requirements for protests on
campus. The act requires the trustees to submit a report to the Legislature, on or before January 2 of each year, on the implementation and administration of these provisions, including information on student code of conduct violations. The act requests the University of California to comply with these provisions.
This bill would require the above-described report to also include demographic data about students reported to have violated the student codes of conduct. The bill would require each campus of the California State University to establish a committee that would be required to hold at least 2 student hearings before January 1, 2029, to elicit feedback regarding established content-neutral time, place, and manner restrictions, as provided. The bill would repeal these provisions as of January 1, 2029.
(1)
Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care, and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service
plan contract or health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2021, to provide coverage for medically necessary treatment of mental health and substance use disorders, as defined, under the same terms and conditions applied to other medical conditions.
This bill would require health care service plans and health insurers to conduct an annual survey to assess the number and prevalence of enrollees or insureds seeking or accessing behavioral health care services from out-of-network providers, the total expenditures paid out-of-pocket by enrollees and insureds for out-of-network and in-network behavioral health care services, as specified, and the reasons for seeking out-of-network behavioral health services. The bill would require the annual survey to be optional for enrollees or insureds. The bill would require health care service plans and health insurers to report survey findings to the departments on or before May 1, 2028, and annually thereafter. The bill would require the departments to adopt regulations establishing
standard requirements and a survey tool, as specified. The bill would require the departments to develop annual reports based on the annual survey and other data, as specified. Because a willful violation of these requirements by a health care service plan would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(2)
Existing law requires specified boards, including the Board of Registered Nursing and the Respiratory Care Board of California, to collect certain workforce data from their respective licensees and registrants for future workforce planning at least biennially. Existing law requires other specified boards that regulate healing arts licensees or registrants to request workforce data from their respective licensees and registrants for future workforce planning at least biennially. Existing law requires the
workforce data collected or requested to include specified information, including, among others, the type of employer or classification or primary practice site, as specified. Existing law prohibits a licensee or registrant from being required to provide the information as a condition for license or registration renewal, and prohibits licensees or registrants from being subject to discipline for not providing the information.
This bill would require the information collected or requested by boards to include whether a licensee or registrant is a contracted provider and the types of health care coverage under which contracted services are provided.
(3)
The California
Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.