California Health and Safety Code

§ 1317.3

HSC § 1317.3 Effective Jan 1, 2008Div. 2 · Ch. 2 · Art. 7

Statute text

(a)As a condition of licensure, each hospital shall adopt, in consultation with the medical staff, policies and transfer protocols consistent with this article and regulations adopted hereunder.

(b)As a condition of licensure, each hospital shall adopt a policy prohibiting discrimination in the provision of emergency services and care based on ethnicity, citizenship, age, preexisting medical condition, insurance status, economic status, ability to pay for medical services, or any characteristic listed or defined in subdivision (b) or (e) of Section 51 of the Civil Code, except to the extent that a circumstance such as age, sex, preexisting medical condition, or physical or mental disability is medically significant to the provision of appropriate medical care to the patient. Transfer by a hospital of a patient who requires evaluation for involuntary psychiatric treatment, as determined by the receiving hospital or other receiving health facility, based upon the decision of a professional person duly authorized by law to make that decision, shall not constitute discrimination for the purposes of this section, if the transferring hospital has not been designated as an evaluation facility by a county pursuant to Section 5150 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, and if the transfer is in compliance with Section 1317.2.

(c)As a condition of licensure, each hospital shall require that physicians and surgeons who serve on an “on-call” basis to the hospital’s emergency room cannot refuse to respond to a call on the basis of the patient’s ethnicity, citizenship, age, preexisting medical condition, insurance status, economic status, ability to pay for medical services, or any characteristic listed or defined in subdivision (b) or (e) of Section 51 of the Civil Code, except to the extent that a circumstance such as age, sex, preexisting medical condition, or physical or mental disability is medically significant to the provision of appropriate medical care to the patient. If a contract between a physician and surgeon and hospital for the provision of emergency room coverage presently prevents the hospital from imposing those conditions, the conditions shall be included in the contract as soon as is legally permissible. Nothing in this section shall be construed as requiring that any physician serve on an “on-call” basis.

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Legislative history

Amended by Stats. 2007, Ch. 568, Sec. 38. Effective January 1, 2008.