CalDerm Alerts
Legislative Alert
Last week saw the death of two of the worst bills before the Legislature this year.
AB 2734 (Krekorian). Medical Board License Numbers on All Advertising. This bill would have required all physician advertisements and business cards to include the physician’s Medical Board license number. The definition of “advertisement” was so broad that it would have required the license number on billing statements and appointment reminders. And the bill was very specific – and unreasonable – as to the appearance and placement of the license number. For example, the number had to be proceeded by the phrase “California Medical Board License Number.” And the CMB/license number combination would have to be “in close proximity” to the physician’s name and it had to be the same font size as the physician’s name!!!
CalDerm strongly opposed the bill from the beginning. When the bill came to the Assembly Floor this week, CalDerm was part of an unlikely coalition against the bill -- the CMA, the California Dental Association, the California Chiropractic Association (the advertising requirements also applied to chiropractors and dentists) and, of course, CalDerm.
CalDerm and our allies lobbied much of the Assembly membership on the bill. The result was lopsided vote against it. In the Assembly, it takes 41 votes for a bill to pass. On Thursday night, AB 2734 got just 16 votes.
AB 2841 (Ma). Disposable Cannulas. As introduced, the bill required physicians to provide an outrageous “disclosure” to prospective liposuction patients. The disclosure, which the patient would have to sign, would have stated that the reusable cannula had “been used on other patients” – as if there was something wrong with that. Worse, the mandated disclosure had to include the “number of patients for which the reusable adipose cannula” had been used -- meaning that you would have to track the use of each cannula. Finally, the mandatory disclosure would have included a statement that “an alternative to reusable adipose cannulas may be available for the adipose medical procedure in the form of disposable adipose cannulas.”
The “disclosure” was clearly designed to 1) raise illegitimate doubts about reusable medical instruments and 2) drive prospective patients to demand the disposable product. Not surprisingly, the manufacturer of disposable cannulas hired a high-powered lobbying firm to push the bill through.
CalDerm, working with the CMA and the California Plastic Surgeons, lobbied against the bill when it was heard before the Assembly Business and Professions Committee. After two hearings, the bill simply did not have the votes. The author did get the bill out of committee, but only because of her promise that the bill would be stripped of its contents and turned into a study bill on infections. Earlier in the week, rather than amend the bill with an infection study, the author placed the bill on the “Inactive File” – meaning that the bill is dead.
For more information contact CalDerm at (916) 498-1712 or email to membership@calderm.org
CalDerm Alerts - Archive
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- February 28, 2008
Anatomic Pathology Services
Signed into Law Effective January 1, 2008
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