While support for this bill by members of the Legislature has continued to grow, Assemblymember Wood announced this week that the bill will be held over to be heard on the Senate Floor the first of next year.
The reason for this delay is that the Governor's Office has communicated concerns to Dr. Wood regarding a few provisions in the bill and more time is needed to reach agreement on proposed solutions. This is not unusual at this point in the legislative process as a bill rounds out its final Legislature votes and the departments/agencies responsible for implementation begin to analyze these bills. In this case, the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) has requested a number of technical amendments to the bill in how the measure will be implemented. With only one week remaining in the current Legislative session there was not time to reach agreement on those items before this legislative term expired. In announcing the new timeline, Assemblymember Wood stated, "There's lots of support for doing something, just not a lot of agreement about the 'how.'"
To provide the time necessary to work through the implementation issues Assemblymember Wood has agreed to continue discussions with DMHC over the next few months in order to reach final agreement and move the bill in January.
Watch for additional information from CPhA about AB315 as the bill continues to move through the legislative process.
