With its passage in 2020, AB 890 created a pathway to greater independence for nurse practitioners (NPs). Traditionally, the Nursing Practice Act regulated the scope of practice of nurse practitioners by the Board of Registered Nursing (BRN).

Over the last 100 years, California has become one the heaviest users of the initiative process. With a state as large, populous, and geographically diverse as California, it is not a surprising occurrence. Case in point: the upcoming midterm general election taking place this November.  

The PHE has broadened access to telehealth services by extending blanket waivers for providers who deliver telehealth services to Medicare patients. With each renewal, the standing blanket waivers have increased the ease and delivery of telehealth and brought forth an increasing need to examine whether these blanket waivers should become permanent.

On October 10, the California Legislature completed the first year of its two-year cycle for legislative action, with Gov. Newsom signing 770 bills into law and vetoing 66. Of those bills, the majority go into effect on January 1, 2022. Below is a list of some of the bills signed into law in the healthcare space.

California is only one of seven states in the country whose voting district lines are drawn by an independent citizens commission. For the rest of the union, state Legislatures and governors draw the lines following completion of the U.S. Census. Lines drawn by such elected officials, of course, are prone to more acutely reflect the party in power.