NEWSLETTER
Volume 1, Issue 18 - April 30, 2021
Recall, Legislative Budget Priorities, Capitol Reopening?
Recall backers have submitted enough valid signatures for the recall of Governor Newsom to go on a statewide ballot. As we've written before, there will be a month long period during which individuals who signed recall petitions may choose to remove their names. However, it appears that recall backers submitted enough signatures to make such a scenario unlikely.
The recall is far from a slam dunk. As reported by CalMatters, "A recent poll contains some interesting results. Majorities of Californians — 58% of likely voters and 64% of public school parents — approve of how the governor is handling the state’s public K-12 education system, and a solid 59% of likely voters give him high marks for his approach to school reopenings, according to a Public Policy Institute of California survey released late Wednesday night."
Mark Baldassare, CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California: The survey results show “voter discontent with schools and the economy falls short of the majority needed to remove the governor from office — and reflects the hyper-partisanship in this blue state.”
"80% of Democrats approve of Newsom’s handling of the school system — compared to just 21% of Republicans. The numbers could pose a significant hurdle for Newsom’s GOP challengers, who frequently cite California’s minimal in-person learning opportunities as a major reason for recalling the governor. As of Wednesday, just 50% of public school students had the option to return to some level of in-person instruction, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of state data. It also remains unclear whether students will return to campus full-time next school year: Newsom has made clear he expects it, but hasn’t endorsed a mandate. It could be a key issue in the election: 64% of likely voters told the Public Policy Institute of California they’re concerned schools won’t reopen for full-time in-person instruction in the fall. Despite Newsom’s high marks, voters’ anxieties about the quality of their children’s education were apparent in the survey. An overwhelming 89% said students are falling behind academically due to the pandemic, 48% said the quality of education has gotten worse in the past few years, and 42% of parents said they would send their kids to private school if cost and location weren’t an issue. That’s up from 31% in 2018 — and may have something to do with the fact that California’s public school enrollment just hit a 20-year low."
Also this week, the Assembly Budget Committee released its revised priorities for the 2021-22 State Budget.
In pertinent part, the document highlights:
Subcommittee 1 on Health and Human Services
- Respond to California’s behavioral health crisis by supporting the California Reducing Disparities Project, All Children Thrive, emergency department peer navigators, Mental Health Student Services Act school county partnerships, and start up costs for peer support specialist certification programs.
- Increase health care access by expanding Medi Cal to all, regardless of immigration status, making Covered California more affordable, eliminating the Medi Cal assets test, implementing CalAIM, extending telehealth flexibilities, and investing in enrollment navigators.
- Build a robust public health infrastructure with significant investments in county public health staff, to effectively address future pandemics as well as current epidemics of HIV, HCV, and STDs, heart disease, diabetes, and deaths of despair.
Lastly, it increasingly appears that legislative leadership may reopen the Capitol this summer. Legislative staff are being asked to provide proof of vaccination and the Chiefs of Staff to the pro Tem, and Speaker recently told a group of lobbyists that they are considering when, and under what circumstances, the Capitol could reopen. It is not just about COVID. For those of you who may have missed it, the 2019 legislative year came to a strange end when anti-vaccination protestors threw blood onto the floor of the State Senate. Both houses expect anti-vaccination protestors to occupy the Capitol the very moment it reopens.
AB 988 Survives Another Committee
On a 11-2 vote, AB 988 moved out of the Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee. Folks advocating for the bill were nervous prior to the committee hearing. As Mental Health America of California (MHAC) stated to its members, "We need your help - the powerful telecom and cable industries are trying to weaken AB 988! A crucial legislative hearing is on Wednesday and your active support is essential to keep the bill strong. The Assembly Communications & Conveyance Committee will vote on AB 988 on Wednesday afternoon. Telecom and cable industries are lobbying to cap the fee at a level that will cripple our communities' ability to set up the new 988 call centers and mobile response system. Committee members need to hear from all of us about AB 988's importance - to our communities, our families, and ourselves."
In fact, the meat of the discussion in this particular committee was on the scope of the surcharge and the uses. There is clearly some tension about the extent to which the surcharge will pay for actual care response. The co-sponsors are deep in discussions with the telecoms about this issue.
You can view the committee's analysis of AB 988 here.
Bills to review: rather than provide you (as we typically do) with the entire list of bills tracked by CSAP, please see here for a list of bills for possible consideration at the next GA Committee meeting. Just 17 bills. Some of them (AB 852, AB 1178) are back for reconsideration of amendments, others because their content - after being amended at least once or twice - now merit consideration. If you feel strongly about any of the bills on this list, please contact Paul Yoder at SYASL by May 14.
CMA Fights for Clinical Decisions
California state senators advanced a bill this week that would ensure clinical decisions are made by medical staff and not hospital administrators, but that could also open the door to prohibiting religious directives that ban certain care at Catholic or other faith-based facilities.
The bill, SB 642, pits the California Medical Association and other medical organizations against the California Hospital Association, the Alliance of Catholic Health Care and other hospital systems.
Senator Sydney Kamlager (D-Los Angeles) told members of the Senate Health Committee that SB 642 would prevent non-medical entities such as private equity firms from “interfering, controlling or otherwise limiting patient access to medical care.”
California already has laws prohibiting corporations from practicing medicine, but Kamlager said the bill would strengthen them. Hospitals under the bill could no longer require that physicians comply with policies not supported by the medical staff as a condition of gaining privileges to practice there.
Get to Know your GA Chair and Vice-Chair
GA Chair - Dr. Steve Koh 
Steve Koh, MD, MPH, MBA is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is current Director of Outpatient Psychiatry (Hillcrest) and Community Psychiatry Program. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University and medical school from UCSD. He received a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Masters in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business. He finished his internship at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, general psychiatry residency at UCSD and geriatric psychiatry fellowship at UCSD.
Dr. Koh is Past President of the San Diego Psychiatric Society, Association of Korean American Psychiatrists, and Board of San Diego NAMI. He is on the executive board at San Diego County Medical Society. Other organizational associations include Group for Advancement of Psychiatry, American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry, and American Association of Community Psychiatry. At the American Psychiatric Association, he is member of the finance and audit committee and SDPS representative to the Assembly.
Dr. Koh’s clinical and research interests lie in older adults with cognitive deficits, underserved patient population, mental health systems, clinical delivery models and technology enabled patient care.
Vice-Chair - Dr. Ilse Wiechers 
Ilse Wiechers, MD, MPP, MHS is a geriatric psychiatrist with additional expertise in health policy and health services research. She serves as the National Director for Psychopharmacology & Somatic Treatments in the Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in VA Central Office, where she advances quality and access to psychopharmacology and somatic treatments (such as ECT, rTMS, and ketamine) for Veterans. She is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at University of California San Francisco and adjunct faculty at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Wiechers specializes in providing clinical care for Veterans with late-life mood, anxiety and trauma-related disorders. She teaches extensively to interprofessional health care audiences at all levels of training and experience. She is a collaborator on several grants focused on improving the quality of psychotropic prescribing and serves as an operational partner for several VA-funded studies. Dr. Wiechers is also deeply engaged in advocacy and policy work through her service to professional organizations. She currently serves as the Secretary/Treasurer-Elect on the AAPG Board of Directors and as the AAGP representative to the American Psychiatric Association Assembly. For the past 8 years she has chaired the Public Policy Committee of the AAGP.
Dr. Wiechers earned her MD and Master of Public Policy at Duke, did her psychiatry residency at MGH and McLean Hospitals, and her geriatric psychiatry fellowship and Master of Health Science at Yale. She is an alumna of the VA Advanced Fellowship Program in Mental Illness Research and Treatment, the Yale RWJF/VA Clinical Scholars Program, and the John A. Hartford Foundation's Center of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Geriatric Psychiatry Training Program. Dr. Wiechers is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and has been elected to the membership of the American College of Psychiatrists.
CSAP / APA Advocacy Training Day
CSAP / APA Advocacy Training Day: CSAP and it's state advocates at SYASL Inc., in conjunction with the APA, will be holding an advocacy training day on June 3 from 6 - 7:30 pm. If you ever wondered about the do's and dont's of advocacy, you will want to participate. This training will also include updates on state and federal legislation. CME credits will available. To register, contact Erica Smith at SYASL.
Reminder: CAL-ACAP Virtual Advocacy Day: Please join CALACAP, Children Now, and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of California for the 2021 Virtual Children's Mental Health Spring Advocacy Day on Monday, May 17th, via Zoom. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for 8:30 am to 4:00 pm PDT. This is a chance to join your fellow mental health community members to discuss important issues with State legislators and their staff. For questions, please contact CALACAP at 800-549-8495 or info@calacap.org.
Have a Listen
- Inside Golden State Politics (Bill Boyarsky / Sherry Jeffe): Rodney King To George Floyd: Can Reform Save The Day? (2021-04-25)
- SacTown Talks (Jarheet Blonien): Shawnda Westly on MICRA (medical malpractice limits) (2021-04-23)
- If I Could Change One Thing (SDSU School of Public Health): Dr. Monica Gandhi, Professor of Medicine and Associate Chief of the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital / UCSF on when/if mask mandates will go away. (2021-04-07)
|
