Elena Lopez-Gusman
Executive Director, California ACEP

California ACEP members went to Sacramento to lobby their congressional leaders. The following is a summary of the sponsored legislation.

AB 447 (Gonzalez) – Reducing Medical Waste & Saving Healthcare Dollars
Patients often present to the emergency department (ED) with conditions that require administering medication to them while in the ED. Sometimes these medications, like eye drops, inhalers and liquid antibiotics, contain more doses than will be used during the duration of the
ED visit, but they cannot be used on another patient. Under existing law, the remaining doses cannot be sent home with the patient they were administered to, so they must be thrown away.
Patients who receive these types of treatments leave the ED with a prescription for the same medication that they must pick up and pay for at an outpatient pharmacy to continue treating their condition. Current law results in redundant prescriptions, increased cost to the health system, and increased medical waste. AB 447 allows patients to take home the remaining doses
of their multiuse medication.

AB 416 (Krell) – Reducing Delays in Care for 5150 Patients in the Emergency Department
One in 6 patients that comes to the ED has a behavioral health diagnosis. Many of these patients are seeking care voluntarily. Some can be stabilized, treated and discharged home after. Some of them need additional community services and in conjunction with the social worker in the ED, can be connected to those services. Some need to be transferred to an inpatient facility. Because they are voluntarily seeking care, emergency physicians can immediately begin looking for placement. There are additionally a smaller number of people who are a danger to themselves and others and need to be placed on a 5150 hold to ensure they remain safe and to get an additional assessment and care at an LPS designated facility as required by law. Emergency physicians cannot start looking for an available bed in an LPS facility until the patient is placed on a 5150, which in some places can take many hours, even days. 5150s are placed by county designated authorized individuals. Who is authorized varies by county. Thus, there is a wide disparity in resources available to providers and to patients, and in the difference in time patients wait depending on the county, or even the time of day, or day of the week they are in crisis. Emergency physicians are always present in the ED. AB 416 empowers emergency physicians to care for their patients by allowing them to apply and train to be county designated individuals authorized to write 5150 holds.

Delays in Proposition 35 Funding Are Crushing Emergency Departments
California ACEP respectfully requests the Legislature maintain its commitment to the emergency care safety net and include $100 million for increasing Medi-Cal rates for emergency physicians as previously approved in the 2024-2025 budget.