New California Laws 2026
and Professions Code, to amend Sections 1385.001, 1385.0011, 1385.0021, 1385.0022, and 1385.0023 of, and to add Sections 1367.2075, 1385.0026, 1385.0027, 1385.0028, 1385.0029, 1385.0031, 1385.0032, 1385.0033, and 1385.0034 to, the Health and Safety Code, and to amend Section 10125.2 of, and to add Section 10123.2045 to, the Insurance Code, relating to pharmacy benefits. SB 62, Menjivar. Health care coverage: essential health benefits. This bill expands California’s Essen- tial Health Benefits (EHBs) benchmark coverage for health plans to include services to evaluate, di- agnose, and treat infertility; durable medical equip- ment such as mobility devices; and, hearing aids. EHB’s are benefits that are mandated to be included in health coverage that is sold in California for indi- viduals and small businesses pursuant to the federal Affordable Care Act. An act to amend Section 1367.005 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to health care coverage. SB 81, Arreguín. Health and care facilities: in- formation sharing. This bill prohibits a health care provider entity and its personnel, unless required by state and federal law, from granting access to the nonpublic areas of the facility for immigration en- forcement without a valid judicial warrant or court order. An act to amend Sections 56.05 and 56.10 of the Civil Code, and to add Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 24250) to Division 20 of the Health and Safe- ty Code, relating to health and care facilities, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect imme- diately. SB 83, Umberg. State Department of Health Care Services: substance abuse treatment: disclosures. This bill expands current law to require the Depart- ment of Health Care Services (DHCS) to post on its website an identification and summary of each vio- lation issued for licensed adult residential alcohol or other drug recovery or treatment facilities. An act to amend Section 11831.5 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to the State Department of Health Care Services. SB 246, Grove. Medi-Cal: graduate medical educa- tion payments. Requires the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to implement a program to allow district and municipal hospitals to draw down federal Medicaid funding for graduate medical edu- cation (GME) costs. An act to add Section 14105.291 to the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to Medi-Cal, and making an appropriation therefor. SB 250, Ochoa Bogh. Medi-Cal: provider direc- tory: skilled nursing facilities. This bill requires the Department of Health Care Services to include skilled nursing facilities as a searchable provider type in its Medi-Cal Managed Care Health Care Op- tions plan selection directory website. An act to add Section 14197.8 to the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to Medi-Cal. SB 278, Cabaldon. Health data: HIV test results. This bill allows for a health care provider to share HIV test results with an individual’s Medi-Cal man- aged care plan or external quality review organiza-
tion contracted by the Department of Health Care Services to conduct external quality reviews of Me- di-Cal plans without the written authorization of the individual tested for the purpose of administering quality improvement programs designed to improve HIV care for Medi-Cal recipient. An act to amend Section 120985 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to health data. SB 306, Becker. Health care coverage: prior au- thorizations. This bill excludes from health plan and insurer prior authorization requirements specified covered health care service that have been approved by the plan or insurer 90% or more times as deter- mined by the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) and the California Department of Insur- ance (CDI) after health plan and insurer reporting and evaluation by DMHC and CDI. Sunsets this bill on January 1, 2034. An act to add and repeal Section 1367.025 of the Health and Safety Code, and to add and repeal Sec- tion 10133.52 of the Insurance Code, relating to health care coverage. SB 351, Cabaldon. Health facilities. This bill pro- hibits a private equity group or hedge fund involved in any manner with a physician or dental practice, in- cluding as an investor, from interfering with the pro- fessional judgment of physicians or dentists in mak- ing health care decisions and entitles the Attorney General (AG) to injunctive relief for violating these provisions. An act to add Division 1.7 (commencing with Sec- tion 1190) to the Health and Safety Code, relating to health practices. SB 386, Limón. Dental providers: fee-based pay- ments. This bill requires a health plan or health in- surer that provides direct payment to a dental provid- er, or payment through a contracted vendor, to have a non-fee-based default method of payment, and, ob- tain affirmative consent from a dental provider who opts in, prior to providing a fee-based payment. An act to add Section 1371.11 to the Health and Safety Code, and to add Section 10123.146 to the In- surance Code, relating to health care coverage. SB 387, Rubio. Physicians and surgeons: special faculty permits: academic medical centers. This bill revises the requirements for a health facility to quali- fy as an academic medical center (AMC), for purpos- es of utilizing special faculty permit (SFP) holders. An act to amend Sections 2168 and 2168.1 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to healing arts. SB 402, Valladares. Health care coverage: autism. This bill moves the existing statutory framework out- lining the qualifications for qualified autism service providers (QAS), qualified autism service profession- als (QASP), and qualified autism service paraprofes- sionals (QASPP) from the Health and Safety Code (HSC) and Insurance Code (IC) to the Business & Professions Code (BPC). An act to amend Section 2290.5 of, and to add Chapter 17 (commencing with Section 4999.200) to Division 2 of, the Business and Professions Code, to amend Sections 1367.27, 1374.72, and 1374.73 of the Health and Safety Code, to amend Sections 10133.15,
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