Bill Text: CA AB940 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Health care: eating disorders.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2024-02-01 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB940 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB940-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Assembly  March 16, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 940

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Introduced by Assembly Member Villapudua

February 14, 2023

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An act to amend Section 1254.5 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to health care.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 940, as amended, Villapudua. Health care: eating disorders.

Existing law establishes the licensure and regulation of health facilities by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires that inpatient treatment of eating disorders must be provided only in state licensed hospitals, which may be general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, or any other licensed health facility designed by the State Department of Public Health.

This bill would expand the approved facilities for inpatient treatment of eating disorders to include psychiatric health facilities.

Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires a health care service plan contract and a health insurance policy to provide coverage for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses, including specified eating disorders.

This bill would state that it is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to expand treatment options and services for individuals suffering from eating disorders.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NOYES   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 1254.5 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:

1254.5.

 (a) The Legislature finds and declares that the disease of eating disorders is not simply medical or psychiatric, but involves biological, sociological, psychological, family, medical, and spiritual components. In addition, the Legislature finds and declares that the treatment of eating disorders is multifaceted, and like the treatment of chemical dependency, does not fall neatly into either the traditional medical or psychiatric milieu.

(b) The inpatient treatment of eating disorders shall be provided only in state licensed hospitals, which may be general acute care hospitals as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 1250, acute psychiatric hospitals as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 1250, psychiatric health facilities as defined in Section 1810.236 of Title 9 of the California Code of Regulations, or any other licensed health facility designated by the State Department of Public Health.

(c) “Eating disorders,” for the purposes of this section, shall have the meaning of the term as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, as published by the American Psychiatric Association.

SECTION 1.

It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to expand treatment options and services for individuals suffering from eating disorders.