California’s New Mandatory Sexual Misconduct & Abuse Reporting Requirement
The State of California is taking additional steps to report sexual misconduct and abuse of patients by licensed health care providers. Effective January 1, 2020, Health Care Facilities and Other Entities (defined below) that arrange for services provided by certain licensed healthcare professionals can now be held liable for failing to report sexual misconduct or sexual abuse of their patients by providers. According to the new law (Business and Professional Code Sec. 805.8), if a Health Care Facility or Other Covered Entity receives a written complaint or allegation regarding a Provider’s (as defined below) sexual misconduct or sexual abuse of a patient, it must report the complaint within 15 days to the Provider’s professional licensing board. Outside GC lawyers represent numerous healthcare clients and other entities which may be subject to this mandatory reporting requirement. Here are the key provisions of CA’s new law: In light of the reporting obligations of this new California law, Health Care Facilities and Other Covered Entities should consider how to: If you would like more information about California’s new mandatory reporting requirement under Section 805.8 of the Business and Professions Code, please contact Michael Brown at [email protected] or 949-636-8128. Michael Brown is a Partner with our California-based team, bringing over three decades of senior in-house counsel experience in the areaS of healthcare, compliance and privacy. Michael has served as in-house counsel to healthcare giants such as Tenet HealthSystems (hospitals), Apria Healthcare (home medical equipment, respiratory and infusion therapy); Clarient, a GE Healthcare company (clinical laboratories); and Edwards Lifesciences (medical device), where he also was a member of the AdvaMed Diagnostic and Compliance Committee that revised the AdvaMed Code of Conduct for the medical device industry.
Under the new law, the term “Health Care Facility” includes hospitals, clinics, inpatient and/or outpatient service providers such as home health agencies, diagnostic imaging centers, dialysis centers, adult day care centers, congregate living facilities, skilled nursing facilities and hospice facilities. “Other Covered Entity” includes any person or entity, regardless if it is licensed or not, that makes any arrangement where a Provider is allowed to practice. By adding “Other Covered Entities” to the law, California now requires reporting of situations of potential abuse by non-healthcare institutions such as universities or companies that have on-site clinics or health facilities (e.g., clinics to address on-the-job injuries, retail pharmacies with on-site clinics, etc.).
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