Assembly Health Committee advances wide-ranging health bills including prior‑authorization reform, insulin cap and staffing enforcement

SACRAMENTO — The California State Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday, July 15, advanced a series of health‑sector bills, moving multiple measures to the Appropriations Committee after hearings that ranged from technical amendments to emotional personal testimony.

Among the measures the committee cleared were Senate Bill 306 (Becker), a prior‑authorization reform the author said aims to limit unnecessary prior authorization; SB 40 (Wiener), capping monthly insulin co‑payments at $35 for a 30‑day supply; SB 363 (Wiener), requiring more data and penalties tied to independent medical review overturn rates; SB 596 (Menjivar), tightening documentation when hospitals claim an “on‑call” waiver for nurse‑to‑patient ratio fines; SB 35 (Umberg), which would allow local agencies to inspect suspected unlicensed sober‑living homes when state investigators do not act within statutory timelines; SB 62 (Menjivar), to codify additions to California’s essential health benefits should the federal government approve changes; SB 535 (Richardson), the Obesity Care Access Act; SB 402 (Valadares), a technical move of autism provider qualifications into the Business and Professions Code; and SB 257 (Wahab), which would bar certain insurer reimbursement liens tied to surrogacy and add pregnancy as a qualifying life event for enrollment. The committee also heard SB 530 (Richardson) on Medi‑Cal network adequacy.

Why it matters: The bills address multiple pressure points in California health policy: administrative burdens on clinicians, drug affordability, mental‑health access, hospital staffing and enforcement, and coverage expansions. Several measures were debated at length and drew diverse stakeholder views — provider associations, hospitals, consumer advocates, insurers and labor unions — reflecting tradeoffs between access, cost and regulatory design.

SB 306 — prior authorization reform: Senator Becker described SB 306 as an attempt to cut “red tape” that delays care, citing a 2023 AMA survey that doctors complete dozens of prior authorizations weekly and said those delays sometimes produce hospitalizations. The version heard includes late technical assistance amendments from the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) and the California Department of Insurance (CDI) that shift much of the exemption determination to regulators, who would use utilization data and specified safeguards (including fraud and patient‑safety considerations) to exempt services or drugs from prior authorization. Supporters including the California…