SECTIONS 127750-127800 - California Statutes

HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE

SECTION 127750-127800

127750. The office shall prepare a Health Manpower Plan for
California. The plan shall consist of at least the following
elements:
(a) The establishment of appropriate standards for determining the
adequacy of supply in California of at least each of the following
categories of health personnel: physicians, midlevel medical
practitioners (physician's assistants and nurse practitioners);
nurses; dentists; midlevel dental practitioners (dental nurses and
dental hygienists); optometrists; optometry assistants; pharmacists;
and pharmacy technicians.
(b) A determination of appropriate standards for the adequacy of
supply of the categories in subdivision (a) shall be made by taking
into account all of the following: current levels of demand for
health services in California; the capacity of each category of
personnel in subdivision (a) to provide health services; the extent
to which midlevel practitioners and assistants can substitute their
services for those of other personnel; the likely impact of the
implementation of a national health insurance program on the demand
for health services in California; professionally developed standards
for the adequacy of the supply of health personnel; and assumptions
concerning the future organization of health care services in
California.
(c) A determination of the adequacy of the current and future
supply of health personnel by category in subdivision (a) taking into
account the sources of supply for such personnel in California, the
magnitude of immigration of personnel to California, and the
likelihood of the immigration continuing.
(d) A determination of the adequacy of the supply of specialties
within each category of health personnel in subdivision (a). The
determination shall be made, based upon standards of appropriate
supply to speciality developed, in accordance with subdivision (b).
(e) Recommendations concerning changes in health manpower
policies, licensing statutes, and programs needed to meet the state's
need for health personnel.

127755. The office shall consult with the California Healthcare
Workforce Policy Commission, health systems agencies, and other
appropriate organizations in the preparation of this plan.

127760. The Legislature finds and declares that:
(a) Planning for appropriate supplies and distribution of health
care personnel is essential to assure the continued health and
well-being of the people of the state and also to contain excess
costs that may result from unnecessary training and underutilization
of health care personnel.
(b) The information on physicians and surgeons collected by the
Medical Board of California, in cooperation with the office, and
under the authority of Sections 921 and 923 of the Business and
Professions Code, has proven to be valuable for health manpower
planning purposes. It is the intent of the Legislature, through this
article, to provide for the efficient collection and analysis of
similar information on other major categories of healing arts
licentiates, in order to facilitate the development of the biennial
health manpower plan and other reports and program activities of the
office.
(c) It is the intent of the Legislature that the data transmitted
to the office by the various boards be processed by the boards so
that licentiates are not identified by name or license number.

127765. The office is authorized and directed to receive, with the
cooperation of the respective healing arts licensing boards and
licentiates, basic data on each licentiate in the following
categories of health personnel: registered nurses, licensed
vocational nurses, pharmacists, dentists, and optometrists. The
office shall develop a suggested format for data collection to be
utilized by the various boards. However, the methods utilized to
collect and tabulate this information, including the format and
content of questionnaires and other survey instruments, shall be
determined by each respective healing arts licensing board after
consultation with the director of the office.

127770. The basic data to be collected on each licentiate in
accordance with Section 127765 shall include at least all of the
following: principal and other practice locations, practice specialty
or specialties for appropriate categories, time spent in direct
patient-care/patient-contact and other professional activities, race
or ethnicity, age, sex, and educational background.

127775. Notwithstanding Sections 922 and 925 of the Business and
Professions Code, the office may receive, and the Medical Board of
California may provide, information respecting individual licentiates
collected pursuant to Sections 921 and 923 of the Business and
Professions Code.
Information provided to the office pursuant to this section shall
be transmitted in a form so that the name or license number of an
individual licensee is not identifiable. However, an encoding
procedure shall be used to assign a unique identifying number to the
other information provided upon the questionnaire so as to allow the
office to track the geographical movements of physicians for planning
purposes.

127780. The office shall maintain the confidentiality of the
information it receives respecting individual licentiates under this
article and shall only release information in a form that cannot be
used to identify individuals.

127785. The California Postsecondary Education Commission shall
furnish to the office, at least biennially, all information that the
commission has compiled pursuant to Section 66903.2 of the Education
Code, that constitutes basic data as to enrollees in public and
private educational institutions and programs preparing or training
health personnel. The office may request additional data from
licensing boards and agencies to supplement the data received from
the commission, as necessary to carry out the health personnel
planning and development activities of the office.

127790. The basic data to be provided to the office pursuant to
Section 127785 shall include all of the following, by training year
or class: numbers enrolled, numbers in the various discipline or
specialty categories, and numbers in age, sex, and race or ethnic
categories.

127795. The office shall implement the authority granted to the
office by Sections 127765, 127775, and 127785, on a phased basis,
consistent with respective relicensure intervals and with the
availability of resources for the effective utilization of the data
and information obtained under that authority.

127800. The respective licensing boards for registered nurses,
licensed vocational nurses, pharmacists, optometrists, and dentists
may adopt regulations that require licentiates to provide the
information included in Section 127770 as a condition of relicensure.
In order to facilitate the collection and analysis of this
information, any of these boards may use information from a
scientifically selected random sample of the licentiates. These
licensing boards may collaborate with the office in the collection or
analysis of this information.