By Catherine I. Hanson,
Vice President & General Counsel
California Medical Association

he first crop of legislation
from the Schwarzenegger administration has been harvested and, bumper crop though it was with nearly a thousand enacted bills, less of it will affect physicians than in the recent past.

The following summarizes the new laws likely to affect a large segment of the physician community. The new laws governing workers' compensation were summarized earlier in the year and will not be discussed in this article. Other new laws of more limited interest will be discussed in the relevant portions of the 2005 California Physicians Legal Handbook and CMA ON-CALL systems. The laws described below are effective January 1, 2005, unless otherwise indicated.

Click here to download the PDF.
( If you have trouble downloading this document, please
contact CMA at 916/551-2074 and request a fax or e-mail copy.)

To read a summary of last year's new laws, click here.