Bill > SB351

This bill adds new regulations to prevent private equity groups and hedge funds from interfering with medical and dental professional judgment and practice management. Specifically, the bill prohibits these financial entities from interfering with healthcare decisions such as diagnostic test selection, patient referrals, treatment options, and patient scheduling. The bill also bars these groups from controlling medical records, hiring and firing clinical staff based on competency, setting contractual parameters with third-party payers, making billing and coding decisions, and approving medical equipment selections. The legislation renders any contracts that violate these provisions void and unenforceable, and it applies to physician and dental practices regardless of their corporate structure. The bill allows the Attorney General to seek injunctive relief and recover legal fees for enforcing these provisions. The intent is to ensure that clinical decision-making remains exclusively in the hands of licensed healthcare providers and to protect against non-licensed entities influencing patient care. The bill includes definitions of hedge funds and private equity groups, and provides specific exemptions for certain types of financial and healthcare entities, such as hospitals, public agencies, and traditional lenders.

Budget and Finance, Business and Industry, Justice

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billStatusClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB351