Bill Text: CA AB1289 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Prisoners: telemedicine.

Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-02-02 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB1289 Detail]

Download: California-2009-AB1289-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 1289	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 20, 2009

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Galgiani
    (   Principal coauthor:   Senator 
 Florez   ) 
    (   Coauthor:   Assembly Member  
Fuller   ) 
    (   Coauthor:   Senator  
Maldonado   ) 

                        FEBRUARY 27, 2009

   An act to add Section 5023.3 to the Penal Code, relating to
prisoners.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1289, as amended, Galgiani. Prisoners: telemedicine.
   Existing law, the Telemedicine Development Act of 1996, regulates
the practice of telemedicine, defined as the practice of health care
delivery, diagnosis, consultation, treatment, transfer of medical
data, and education using interactive audio, video, or data
communications, by a health care practitioner, as defined. Existing
law establishes that  it is the intent of the Legislature that
 the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation operate in the
most cost-effective and efficient manner possible when purchasing
health care services for inmates.
   This bill would declare the Legislature's findings on the use of
telemedicine in the state's prisons. The bill would require the
department to establish guidelines for the use of telemedicine
consultations, use telemedicine for all appropriate consultations,
 make use of existing external telemedicine resources, maintain
current prison telemedicine programs, as specified,  and
establish annual performance targets regarding the use of
telemedicine in prisons.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 5023.3 is added to the Penal Code, to read:
   5023.3.  (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (1) It is the intent of the Legislature to require the Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation to implement the recommendations
proposed by the Legislative Analyst's Office relating to the use of
telemedicine in state prisons.
   (2) The Legislative Analyst's Office found in a February 2006
report that opportunities exist for the department to significantly
expand its use of telemedicine in prisons, thereby enhancing public
safety, generating cost savings, and improving inmates' access to
care.
   (3) Telemedicine provides the opportunity to bid out contracts to
a larger pool of physicians licensed to practice across the state,
rather than only to those contract physicians practicing in the
region of a specific prison.
   (4) Telemedicine improves inmates' access to health care by
enabling correctional systems to expand their provider network to
include physicians located outside the immediate vicinity of prisons,
particularly for inmates housed in remote areas of the state with
shortages of health care.
   (5) The department's prison telemedicine program began in 1997 as
a pilot project for mental health inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison
and was successful at improving inmates' access to mental health
care. Accordingly, the department decided to expand the program to
provide mental health as well as medical specialty services at other
prisons. In 2006, 27 of the state's 33 prisons were equipped to
provide telemedicine services.
   (6) The department estimates that it saves on average about eight
hundred fifty dollars ($850) in transportation and medical guarding
costs for each outside medical visit that is avoided due to
telemedicine. In total, approximately four million dollars
($4,000,000) in transportation and medical guarding costs were
avoided in 2004-05 because of the program.
   (7) The Legislative Analyst's Office has determined that despite
the growth of the department's telemedicine program since 1997, the
program is underutilized. The Legislative Analyst's Office has cited
two factors that explain why telemedicine is underutilized. First,
the department encourages, but does not require, prison healthcare
staff to use the program when it could  be 
effectively substitute for offsite medical appointments. Second, the
department offers only a limited number of medical specialties
through telemedicine.
   (b) In order to maximize the benefits that come with the use of
telemedicine in the state's prisons, the department shall do all of
the following:
   (1) Require prisons to use the prison telemedicine program for all
medical consultations that are appropriate for telemedicine
consultations. 
   (2) To the extent feasible, make use of existing external
telemedicine resources.  
   (3) Maintain and continue to implement the prison telemedicine
programs established by the court-appointed receiver, unless the
department has identified more cost-effective alternatives for
providing health care services to inmates.  
   (2) 
    (4)  Establish guidelines concerning the specific
conditions under which telemedicine consultations  must  be
used in place of outside medical visits.  Medical specialty
appointments that meet these criteria shall be provided via
telemedicine.  
   (3) 
    (5)  Establish annual performance targets 
beginning in 2010-11  for prisons regarding the total number
and percentage of medical specialty consultations that are conducted
by telemedicine rather than at community medical facilities. The
department shall report to the Legislature, annually, on its plans
and performance. The ultimate goal of these performance targets shall
be to limit in-person consultations in the community to only those
that, due to the nature of the medical problem, must be conducted in
a face-to-face encounter between physician and inmate.