Last year, numerous pieces of legislation impacting physicians were signed into law in California. The following new health laws are particularly relevant to physician practices and medical professional liability. This alert is based in part on information obtained from the California Medical Association. All laws are effective January 1, 2025, unless otherwise noted. New California Healthcare laws by topic: Allied Health Professionals: SB 1451 – Professions and vocations Prohibits anyone other than a licensed physician and surgeon from using “doctor,” “physician,” “Dr.,” “M.D.,” “D.O.,” or any other terms or letters implying the person is a physician, in a health care setting....
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) of 1986 is a federal law aimed at ensuring public access to emergency medical services regardless of a patient's ability to pay for those services. The primary intent of EMTALA is to prevent instances of "patient dumping," in which hospitals refuse to treat uninsured patients or transfer them to other facilities without providing adequate medical evaluation and care. EMTALA imposes several requirements on Medicare-participating hospitals that offer emergency services, and physicians with staff privileges at those hospitals may also have individual obligations under EMTALA. Hospital Requirements When a patient arrives at a...
As of December 23, 2024, healthcare providers must comply with a new HIPAA rule that applies to certain requests for reproductive health information. Briefly, the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy (Final Rule) was published by the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in April 2024, as a response to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022 that allowed states to legally prohibit abortion. The Final Rule addresses public concern about protected health information (PHI) being shared with state agencies, law enforcement, and other authorities for the investigation or...
The ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles County are straining local healthcare resources as physicians and other providers care for patients who were directly injured in the fires and/or emotionally traumatized from the disaster, as well as displaced residents who need ongoing medical care. Local medical clinics, physician offices, and other healthcare facilities have been either destroyed in the fires or closed due to lack of access. Since the wildfires, several important temporary changes to laws and regulations at both the federal and state levels have been made to facilitate health care for those affected by the fires. On January 10th...
Dobbs Update December 2024 – Out of State Referrals in Idaho
On 12/4/24 a federal court upheld an injunction protecting Idaho physicians from prosecution for referring patients outside the state for abortions. Under Idaho law in the wake of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision, it is illegal for physicians to assist patients in obtaining a prohibited abortion. In a leaked March 2023 letter, the state’s Attorney General opined that this would also include referring patients to providers in other states for the purposes of obtaining an abortion, indicating that physicians would be criminally charged for out-of-state referrals. The Attorney General reportedly withdrew the opinion shortly after it was...
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