Bill Text: CA AB2319 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 16-0)
Status: (Enrolled) 2024-08-29 - Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 62. Noes 9.). [AB2319 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB2319-Amended.html
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Amended
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Senate
August 15, 2024 |
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Amended
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Senate
June 27, 2024 |
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Amended
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Assembly
May 20, 2024 |
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Amended
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Assembly
May 16, 2024 |
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Amended
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Assembly
March 21, 2024 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 2319
| Introduced by Assembly Members Wilson and Weber (Principal coauthors: Assembly Members Bonta, Bryan, Gipson, and Holden) (Principal coauthor: Senator Bradford) (Coauthors: Assembly Members Berman, Grayson, Jackson, Jones-Sawyer, McCarty, McKinnor, Ortega, and Petrie-Norris) (Coauthor: Senator Smallwood-Cuevas) |
February 12, 2024 |
An act to amend Sections 123630.1, 123630.2, and 123630.3 of, and to add Sections 123630.6 and 123630.7 to, the Health and Safety Code, relating to maternal health.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2319, as amended, Wilson.
California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act.
Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to maintain a program of maternal and child health, which may include, among other things, facilitating services directed toward reducing infant mortality and improving the health of mothers and children. Existing law requires the Office of Health Equity within the department to serve as a resource for ensuring that programs collect and keep data and information regarding ethnic and racial health statistics, and strategies and programs that address multicultural health issues, including, but not limited to, infant and maternal mortality. Existing law makes legislative findings relating to implicit bias and racial disparities in maternal mortality rates. Existing law requires a hospital that provides perinatal care, and an alternative birth center or a primary clinic that provides services as an alternative birth center, to
implement an evidence-based implicit bias program, as specified, for all health care providers involved in perinatal care of patients within those facilities. Existing law requires the health care provider to complete initial basic training through the program and a refresher course every 2 years thereafter, or on a more frequent basis if deemed necessary by the facility. Existing law requires the facility to provide a certificate of training completion upon request, to accept certificates of completion from other facilities, and to offer training to physicians not directly employed by the facility. Existing law requires the department to track and publish data on pregnancy-related death and severe maternal morbidity, as specified.
This bill would make a legislative finding that the Legislature recognizes all birthing people, including nonbinary persons and persons of transgender experience. The bill would extend the evidence-based implicit bias training
requirements to specified health care providers at hospitals that provide perinatal care, alternative birth centers, or primary care clinics, as specified. The bill would require an implicit bias program to include recognition of intersecting identities and the potential associated biases. The bill would require initial basic training for the implicit bias program to be completed by June 1, 2025, for current health care providers, and within 6 months of their start date for new health care providers, unless exempted. The bill would require specified facilities to, by February 1 of each year, commencing in 2026, provide the Attorney General with proof of compliance with these provisions, as specified. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to pursue civil penalties for violations of these provisions, as specified. The bill would require that Attorney General be awarded all attorney’s fees and costs in any civil action in
which a court imposes any of those civil penalties. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to post on its internet website a list of facilities that did not timely submit proof of compliance or were assessed penalties under these provisions, as specified. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to post any other compliance data they deem necessary and would authorize the Attorney General to biennially publish a report outlining compliance data related to these provisions. The bill would make the provisions of the act severable.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 123630.1 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:123630.1.
The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the following:(a) Every person should be entitled to dignity and respect during and after pregnancy and childbirth. Patients should receive the best care possible regardless of their race, gender, age, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, language proficiency, nationality, immigration status, gender expression, or religion.
(b) The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world. About 700 women die each year from childbirth, and another 50,000 suffer from severe complications. In California, since 2006, the rate of maternal death has decreased 55
percent, in contrast to the steady increase in the United States as a whole.
(c) However, for women of color, particularly Black women, the maternal mortality rate remains three to four times higher than White women. Black women make up 5 percent of the pregnancy cohort in California, but 21 percent of the pregnancy-related deaths.
(d) Forty-one percent of all pregnancy-related deaths had a good to strong chance of preventability. California has a responsibility to decrease the number of preventable pregnancy-related deaths.
(e) Pregnancy-related deaths among Black women are also more likely to be miscoded. Thirty-five percent of pregnancy-related deaths among Black women in California were miscoded, misidentifying
pregnancy-related deaths as other deaths.
(f) Access to prenatal care, socioeconomic status, and general physical health do not fully explain the disparity seen in Black women’s maternal mortality and morbidity rates. There is a growing body of evidence that Black women are often treated unfairly and unequally in the health care system.
(g) Implicit bias is a key cause that drives health disparities in communities of color. At present, health care providers in California are not required to undergo any implicit bias testing or training. Nor does there exist any system to track the number of incidents where implicit prejudice and implicit stereotypes have led to negative birth and maternal health outcomes.
(h) It is the
intent of the Legislature to reduce the effects of implicit bias in pregnancy, childbirth, and postnatal care so that all people are treated with dignity and respect by their health care providers.
(i) The Legislature recognizes all birthing people, including nonbinary persons and persons of transgender experience.
(j) All persons who may interact with perinatal patients to gatekeep, facilitate, or coordinate access to timely, responsive, respectful, and appropriate medical care may impact Black birthing persons’ maternal mortality and morbidity outcomes, including, but not limited to, hospital or facility employees who facilitate, control, or directly or indirectly coordinate access to timely and appropriate medical treatment as well as those who provide medical and ancillary
treatment.
SEC. 2.
Section 123630.2 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:123630.2.
For the purposes of this article, the following terms have the following meanings:(a) “Pregnancy-related death” is the death of a person while pregnant or within 365 days of the end of a pregnancy, irrespective of the duration or site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to, or aggravated by, the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes.
(b) “Implicit bias” is a bias in judgment or behavior that results from subtle cognitive processes, including implicit prejudice and implicit stereotypes that often operate at a level below conscious awareness and without intentional control.
(c) “Implicit prejudice” is prejudicial negative feelings or beliefs about a group that a person holds without being aware of them.
(d) “Implicit stereotypes” are the unconscious attributions of particular qualities to a member of a certain social group. Implicit stereotypes are influenced by experience and are based on learned associations between various qualities and social categories, including race or gender.
(e) “Perinatal care” is the provision of care during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum and neonatal periods. “Perinatal care” includes, but is not limited to, prenatal care.
SEC. 3.
Section 123630.3 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:123630.3.
(a) A hospital as defined in subdivision (a) or (f) of Section 1250 that provides perinatal care, and an alternative birth center or primary care clinic subject to Section 1204.3, shall implement an evidence-based implicit bias program for all health care providers involved in the perinatal care of patients within those facilities, including:(1) All persons licensed under Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code (commencing with Section 500) who are regularly assigned to provide perinatal care, including, but not limited to, those in primary care clinics, alternative birthing centers, outpatient clinics, or emergency departments.
(2) All persons who are regularly assigned to positions where they interact with perinatal patients, including, but not limited to, physician assistants, medical assistants, licensed vocational nurses, doctors, or those who facilitate, control, or coordinate access to timely and appropriate medical treatment, as well as any others who provide medical and ancillary treatment.
(b) An implicit bias program implemented pursuant to subdivision (a) shall include all of the following:
(1) Identification of previous or current unconscious biases and misinformation.
(2) Identification of personal, interpersonal, institutional, structural, and cultural barriers to inclusion.
(3) Corrective measures to decrease implicit bias at the interpersonal and institutional levels, including ongoing policies and practices for that purpose.
(4) Information on the effects, including, but not limited to, ongoing personal effects, of historical and contemporary exclusion and oppression of minority communities.
(5) Information about cultural identity across racial or ethnic groups.
(6) Information about communicating more effectively across identities, including racial, ethnic, religious, and gender identities.
(7) Discussion on power dynamics and organizational decisionmaking.
(8) Discussion on health inequities within the perinatal care field, including information on how implicit bias impacts maternal and infant health outcomes.
(9) Perspectives of diverse, local constituency groups and experts on particular racial, identity, cultural, and provider-community relations issues in the community.
(10) Information on reproductive justice.
(11) Recognition of intersecting identities, including, but not limited to, nonbinary persons and persons of transgender experience, and the multiple layers of potential biases that could come into play, resulting in harm to patients and their infants.
(c) (1) A health care
provider described in subdivision (a) shall complete initial basic training through the implicit bias program based on the components described in subdivision (b). This initial basic training must be completed by June 1, 2025, for all current health care providers. The initial basic training must be provided to new health care providers at all facilities within six months of their start at the new facility unless subdivision (d) applies.
(2) Upon completion of the initial basic training, a health care provider shall complete a refresher course under the implicit bias program every two years thereafter, or on a more frequent basis if deemed necessary by the facility, in order to keep current with changing racial, identity, and cultural trends and best practices in decreasing interpersonal and institutional implicit bias.
(3) The training shall be provided during paid work time.
(d) A facility described in subdivision (a) shall provide a certificate of training completion to another facility or a training attendee upon request. A facility may accept a certificate of completion from another facility described in subdivision (a) to satisfy the training requirement described in subdivision (c) for a health care provider who works in more than one facility.
(e) Notwithstanding subdivisions (a) to (d), inclusive, if a physician involved in the perinatal care of patients is not directly employed by a facility, the facility shall offer the training to the physician.
(f) By February 1 of
each year, commencing in 2026, a facility described in subdivision (a) shall provide the Attorney General with proof of compliance. Proof of compliance shall include all of the following:
(1) A list of all of the health care providers described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) who completed the training requirements outlined in subdivision (c).
(2) The dates that each health care provider completed their training.
(3) The written materials used in the training.
(4) A description of the training, including substance, format, and duration.
(5) A list that outlines the categories by job title of
the health care providers described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) who did not participate in the training, if any. Each category shall include both of the following:
(A) A delineation of the respective health care provider or providers by employee status.
(B) The number and percentage of the health care providers who failed to complete the training out of the total relevant health care providers within the respective category.
(g) A facility described in subdivision (a) that violates the requirement to implement an implicit bias program pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section, or fails to submit proof of compliance to the Attorney General pursuant to subdivision (f) of this section shall be liable for a
civil penalty of five thousand dollars ($5,000) for the first violation and
fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) for the second and each subsequent violation. In the event a facility’s proof of compliance submitted to the Attorney General reveals systemic failure of providers to complete the training requirements outlined in subdivision (c), the facility shall be liable for a civil penalty of five thousand dollars ($5,000) for the first violation, and fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) for the second and each subsequent violation. Civil penalties specified in this subdivision shall be assessed and recovered in a civil action brought in the name of the people of the State of California by the Attorney General in any court of competent jurisdiction. The Attorney General shall be awarded all attorney’s fees and costs in any civil action in which a court imposes any of the penalties described in this section.
The penalties provided by this subdivision are not exclusive and do not limit other remedies available in law for such violations.
(h) (1) For purposes of subdivision (g), “systemic failure” means the lesser of the following:
(A) Ten percent or more of providers failing to complete the training, provided that if only one or two providers did not receive the training, the facility was provided a reasonable opportunity to cure before a penalty is pursued.
(B) Twenty-five providers failing to complete the required training.
(2) For purposes of the definition of “systemic failure,” failure by a physician who is not directly
employed by the facility shall not be counted toward the percentage of providers failing to complete the required training where the facility demonstrates that the required training was offered to the physician, pursuant to subdivision (e).
(i) The Attorney General may post on their website a list of all facilities that did not timely submit proof of compliance pursuant to subdivision (f) or that were assessed penalties pursuant to subdivision (g). The Attorney General may include all of the following information when listing the facilities that were assessed penalties:
(1) The date the penalty was issued.
(2) The amount of the penalty.
(3) The
reason the penalty was issued.
(4) The percentage of untrained providers.
(5) The date of facility noncompliance.
(j) The Attorney General may post on their internet website any other compliance data related to this article they deem appropriate.
(k) This section shall not be construed to limit the Attorney General from disclosing, on their internet website or otherwise, any information that they are otherwise not restricted from disclosing by any other provision of law.
