In a series of last-minute bill signings, Governor Schwarzenegger this weekend signed all of CMA’s sponsored bills.

The CMA-sponsored bills signed by the governor were:

• AB 682, which will help make HIV testing a routine part of medical checkups.
• AB 632, which strengthens whistle-blower protections for physicians and prohibits hospitals from retaliating or discriminating against a physician on its medical staff for speaking out about the quality of care provided in the facility.
• AB 1226, which streamlines Medi-Cal physician enrollment.
• AB 1324, which confirms that it is illegal for insurers to rescind or modify authorization after services are rendered in good faith.

Two CMA-sponsored bills introduced this year will be taken up again in the next legislative session. These include the farmworker health coverage bill (AB 770), which would improve access to health care for farmworkers in California, and AB 1155, which would require mandatory penalties for HMOs that are found by the Department of Managed Health Care to have underpaid physicians, and would require those HMOs to automatically pay to physicians the full amount of underpayment plus interest.

A comprehensive legislative wrap-up will be available soon. Stay tuned to CMA Alert for details.

For more information on these and other bills of interest to physicians, see CMA's Legislative Hot List.

Contact: Susan Bassett, 916/444-5532 or sbassett@cmanet.org.