Chapter 1. Health Professions Planning of California Health And Safety Code >> Division 107. >> Part 3. >> Chapter 1.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.