Assembly Health Committee advances bills on nurse practitioner death certificates, Medi‑Cal diapers and provider directories

SACRAMENTO — The California State Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, voted to send a package of health bills to the next stage of review, moving measures that would allow nurse practitioners to sign death certificates, expand Medi‑Cal diaper coverage, require notification to cities about new recovery‑housing licenses and tighten requirements for health plan provider directories and customer assistance.

Why it matters: The bills the committee advanced touch everyday access to care — from administrative steps that can speed funerary and benefit processes, to programs intended to reduce barriers to finding in‑network providers and to ease financial strain on families who cannot afford diapers. Several measures also address behavioral‑health pathways and administrative processes that lawmakers and advocates say currently slow or block care.

Nurse practitioners and death certificates (AB 583) AB 583, sponsored by Assemblymember Pellerin, would authorize nurse practitioners to sign death certificates. Supporters said the change would reduce delays for families and for funeral arrangements where a physician may not have provided prior care. Sarani Quan, a nurse practitioner at West County Health Centers, testified that she was often the longtime primary caregiver for patients but could not sign their death certificates, leaving families waiting for documents needed for benefits and services. "When she passed away ... I was not able to sign her death certificate," Quan said in testimony, adding that mortuaries and families had urged the change. Committee members supported the bill and it was moved out of committee.

Notification of new alcohol and drug recovery or treatment licenses (AB 492) AB 492, by Assemblymember Valencia and sponsored by the League of California Cities, would require the Department of Health Care Services to notify cities and counties when it issues an initial license for a new alcohol or drug recovery or treatment facility in a jurisdiction. Norma Campos Kurtz, an Anaheim city council member, described neighborhood impacts from unlicensed or rapidly proliferating recovery housing and said early notice would allow…