AB 538 — Sexual assault: medical evidentiary examinations and reporting.

Summary

Existing law requires the Office of Emergency Services to establish a protocol for the examination and treatment of victims of sexual assault and attempted sexual assault and the collection and preservation of evidence therefrom. Existing law requires the office to adopt a standard and a complete form or forms for the recording of medical and physical evidence data disclosed by a victim of sexual assault or attempted sexual assault. This bill would authorize the form to be issued as a paper version or as an electronic version, or as both the paper and electronic version. Existing law requires a qualified health care professional who conducts an examination for evidence of a sexual assault or an attempted sexual assault to use the standard form and to make those observations and perform those tests required to record the data required by the form. Existing law defines qualified health care professional for this purpose to include a physician and surgeon and a currently licensed nurse who is working in consultation with a physician and surgeon who conducts examinations or provides treatment in a general acute care hospital or in a physician and surgeon's office. This bill would include in the definition of "qualified health care professional" a currently licensed nurse practitioner or a physician assistant who is working in consultation with a physician and surgeon and who conducts examinations or provides treatment in a general acute care hospital or in a physician and surgeon's office. Existing law requires a hospital-based training center to be established through a competitive bidding process, to train medical personnel on how to perform medical evidentiary examinations for victims of specified crimes, including, among other things, child abuse or neglect, domestic violence, and sexual assault. This bill would require that center to be identified as the California Clinical Forensic Medical Training Center and would require the center to train qualified health care professionals, as defined above. The bill would require the training to additionally include specified training regarding victims of child sexual abuse, intimate partner violence, and sex trafficking. The bill would require the center to, among other things, develop and maintain updated standardized medical evidentiary examination forms and protocols for examinations of specified crimes, and to provide training and technical assistance for sexual assault forensic examination teams on the science of medical evidentiary examinations, emerging trends, and sound operational practices. Existing law requires any victim of a sexual assault who seeks a medical evidentiary examination to be provided with one, as specified. This bill would authorize data from a medical evidentiary examination, with the patient's identity removed, to be collected for health and forensic purposes in accordance with state and federal privacy laws. Existing law prohibits costs incurred by a qualified health care professional, hospital, or other emergency medical facility for the medical evidentiary examination portion of the examination of the victim of a sexual assault, as described in a specified protocol, when the examination is performed as specified, from being charged directly or indirectly to the victim of the assault. This bill would make that prohibition on charging a victim of sexual assault applicable to costs incurred by a clinic or sexual assault forensic examination team, and would include nurse practitioners and physician's assistants as qualified health care professionals. Existing law requires the cost of a medical evidentiary examination performed by a qualified health care professional, hospital, or other emergency medical facility for a victim of a sexual assault to be treated as a local cost and charged to the local law enforcement agency in whose jurisdiction the alleged offense was committed. Existing law authorizes a local law enforcement agency to seek reimbursement from the Office of Emergency Services for the cost of conducting the medical evidentiary examination portion of a medical examination of a sexual assault victim who does not participate in the criminal justice system and limits the amount that may be charged and reimbursed for that portion of the exam to $300. This bill, instead, would authorize a local law enforcement agency to seek reimbursement for the cost of conducting the medical evidentiary examination of a sexual assault victim who is undecided at the time of an examination whether to report to law enforcement. The bill would repeal the provision limiting the amount that may be charged and reimbursed to $300, and would instead require the Office of Emergency Services to determine the amount that may be reimbursed to offset the cost of a medical evidentiary exam once every 5 years, not to exceed 50% of the most recently determined reimbursement amount. The bill would authorize the Office of Emergency Services to redetermine the amount that may be reimbursed to offset the cost of a medical evidentiary exam, at any time, if the federal government reduces the amount of specified federal grants awarded to the office. Existing law authorizes a minor to consent to hospital, medical, and surgical care related to a sexual assault without the consent of a parent or guardian. This bill would also authorize a minor to consent to, or withhold consent for, a medical evidentiary examination without the consent of a parent or guardian. Existing law requires the collection of physical evidence to conform to specified procedures, including, but not limited to, requiring that a baseline gonorrhea culture and syphilis serology be taken, if indicated by the history of contact, that specimens for a pregnancy test be taken, if indicated by the history of contact, and the taking of both swabs and slides, as specified. This bill, instead, would authorize sexually transmitted infection testing and presumptive treatment to be provided, if indicated by the history of the contact. The bill would require that specimens for a pregnancy test be taken if indicated by the history of contact and age of the victim. The bill would require baseline testing for sexually transmitted infections to be done for a child, a person with a disability, or a person who is residing in a long-term care facility, if forensically indicated. The bill would also require, for victims of sexual assault with an assault history of strangulation, best practices to be followed for a complete physical examination and diagnostic testing to prevent adverse outcomes or morbidity and documentation on a supplemental medical evidentiary examination form. The bill would also delete the requirement to take slides as part of the procedure to collect physical evidence and would make a conforming change. The bill would further require, on or before January 1, 2021, a hospital, clinic, or other emergency medical facility at which medical evidentiary examinations are conducted to implement a system to maintain medical evidentiary examination reports in a manner that facilitates their release only as required or authorized by law.

Bill Text

• Chaptered 10/10/19 - Chaptered Current pdf October 10, 2019
• Enrolled 09/17/19 - Enrolled pdf September 17, 2019
• Amended 09/06/19 - Amended Senate pdf September 06, 2019
• Amended 08/30/19 - Amended Senate pdf August 30, 2019
• Amended 06/13/19 - Amended Senate pdf June 13, 2019
• Amended 05/30/19 - Amended Senate pdf May 30, 2019
• Introduced 02/13/19 - Introduced pdf February 13, 2019
• AB538 View text html

Action History

1. October 10, 2019

   Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 714, Statutes of 2019.

2. October 10, 2019

   Approved by the Governor.

3. September 24, 2019

   Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.

4. September 12, 2019

   Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 3506.).

5. September 11, 2019

   In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.

6. September 11, 2019

   Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2815.).

7. September 09, 2019

   Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

8. September 06, 2019

   Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading.

9. September 03, 2019

   Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

10. August 30, 2019

    Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading.

11. August 30, 2019

    From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 30).

12. June 24, 2019

    In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file.

13. June 13, 2019

    Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

14. June 12, 2019

    From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 11).

15. May 30, 2019

    From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on PUB. S.

16. May 01, 2019

    Referred to Com. on PUB. S.

17. April 23, 2019

    In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment.

18. April 22, 2019

    Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 1259.)

19. April 11, 2019

    Read second time. Ordered to third reading.

20. April 10, 2019

    From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (April 10).

21. March 26, 2019

    From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (March 26). Re-referred to Com. on APPR.

22. March 07, 2019

    Referred to Com. on PUB. S.

23. February 14, 2019

    From printer. May be heard in committee March 16.

24. February 13, 2019

    Read first time. To print.

Sponsors

• Marc Berman · Primary
• Low · Cosponsor

Votes

Subjects