(1) Existing law, the Nursing Practice Act, establishes the Board of Registered Nursing within the Department of Consumer Affairs for the licensure and regulation of the practice of nursing, and requires the board to issue a certificate to practice nurse-midwifery to a person who, among other qualifications, meets educational standards established by the board or the equivalent of those educational standards. Existing law, the Licensed Midwifery Practice Act of 1993, provides for the licensure of midwives by the Medical Board of California.
Existing law, the Song-Brown Health Care Workforce Training Act, provides for specified training programs for certain health care workers, including family physicians, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. Existing law establishes a state medical contract program with accredited medical schools, hospitals, and other programs and institutions to increase the number of students and residents receiving quality education and training in specified primary care specialties and maximize the delivery of primary care and family physician services to underserved areas of the state.
This bill would enact the Midwifery Workforce Training Act, under which the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development would, upon appropriation by the Legislature, contract with programs that train certified nurse-midwives and programs that train licensed midwives to increase the number of students receiving quality education and training as a certified nurse-midwife or a licensed midwife, as specified. The bill would require the office to contract only with programs that include, or intend to include, a component of training designed for medically underserved multicultural communities, lower socioeconomic neighborhoods, or rural communities, and that are organized to prepare program graduates for service in those neighborhoods and communities.
(2) Existing law requires the State Department of Public Health to track data on pregnancy-related deaths, including specified health conditions, indirect obstetric deaths, and other maternal disorders predominantly related to pregnancy and complications predominantly related to the puerperium, and requires this data to be published at least once every 3 years. Existing law also requires the department to develop a plan to identify causes of infant mortality and morbidity in California and to study recommendations on the reduction of infant mortality and morbidity in California.
This bill would, commencing August 1, 2022, establish the California Pregnancy-Associated Review Committee, and would require the committee to, among other things, identify and review all pregnancy-related deaths and severe maternal morbidity. The bill would require the committee to be composed of a minimum of 13 members, as specified, and would authorize the committee to request from any state department, commission, local health department, or coroner, among others, specified information, including death records, medical records, and autopsy reports. The bill would make all proceedings, activities, and opinions of the committee confidential.
This bill would require each county to annually report infant deaths to its respective local health department. The bill would require local health departments, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to establish a Fetal and Infant Mortality Review committee to investigate infant deaths to prevent fetal and infant death under specified circumstances, and would require those local health departments that participate in the Fetal and Infant Mortality Review process to annually investigate, track, and review cases of term infants, as defined, who were born following labor with the outcome of intrapartum stillbirth, early neonatal death, or postneonatal death. The bill would require counties, hospitals, birthing centers, and state entities to provide to local health departments death records, medical records, and autopsy reports, among other information, that will help the local health department conduct the fetal and infant mortality review.
By imposing duties on local officials, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(3) Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services pursuant to a schedule of benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions.
This bill would require the department to convene a workgroup to examine the implementation of the Medi-Cal doula benefit, as specified. No later than July 1, 2024, the bill would require the department to publish a report that addresses the number of Medi-Cal recipients utilizing doula services and identifies barriers that impede access to doula services, among other things, and would require the department to post that report on its internet website.
(4) Existing law provides for the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program under which, through a combination of state and county funds and federal funds, each county provides cash assistance and other benefits to qualified low-income families. Existing law requires a recipient of CalWORKs to participate in welfare-to-work activities as a condition of eligibility, but provides an exemption to a woman who is pregnant and for whom it has been medically verified that the pregnancy impairs their ability to be regularly employed or participate in welfare-to-work activities or the county has determined that, at that time, participation will not readily lead to employment or that a training activity is not appropriate.
This bill would remove the medical verification and county determination requirements, and would instead provide an exemption to any recipient who is pregnant.
Because the bill would result in an increase in CalWORKs eligibility, thus increasing the duties of counties administering the CalWORKs program, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
Existing law continuously appropriates moneys from the General Fund to defray a portion of county costs under the CalWORKs program.
This bill would, instead, provide that the continuous appropriation would not be made for purposes of implementing the bill.
(5) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.
This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
(6) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Statutes affected:
SB65: 4440 WIC
12/07/20 - Introduced: 4440 WIC
03/10/21 - Amended Senate: 128200 HSC, 128205 HSC, 128210 HSC, 128215 HSC, 128224 HSC, 128225 HSC, 128230 HSC, 128235 HSC, 11320.3 WIC, 14005.18 WIC, 14005.225 WIC, 15840 WIC, 4440 WIC
04/05/21 - Amended Senate: 128200 HSC, 128205 HSC, 128210 HSC, 128215 HSC, 128224 HSC, 128225 HSC, 128230 HSC, 128235 HSC, 11320.3 WIC, 14005.18 WIC, 14005.225 WIC, 15840 WIC
04/15/21 - Amended Senate: 11320.3 WIC, 14005.18 WIC, 15840 WIC
06/14/21 - Amended Assembly: 11320.3 WIC, 14005.18 WIC, 15840 WIC
08/30/21 - Amended Assembly: 11320.3 WIC, 14005.18 WIC, 15840 WIC
09/02/21 - Amended Assembly: 11320.3 WIC
09/14/21 - Enrolled: 11320.3 WIC
10/04/21 - Chaptered: 11320.3 WIC
SB 65: 4440 WIC