BILL NUMBER: AB 2139INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Eggman FEBRUARY 20, 2014 An act to add Section 442.4 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to terminal illness. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2139, as introduced, Eggman. End-of-life care: patient notification. Under existing law, the State Department of Public Health licenses and regulates health facilities, including hospice facilities, and the provision of hospice services. Existing law establishes the Medical Practice Act, which provides for the regulation and licensure of physicians and surgeons by the Medical Board of California. When a health care provider, as defined, makes a diagnosis that a patient has a terminal illness, existing law requires the health care provider to provide the patient, upon the patient's request, with comprehensive information and counseling regarding legal end-of-life options, as specified, and provide for the referral or transfer of a patient, as provided, if the patient's health care provider does not wish to comply with the patient's request for information on end-of-life options. This bill would require a health care provider, as defined, to notify the patient, when the health care provider makes a diagnosis that a patient has a terminal illness, of the patient's right to comprehensive information and counseling regarding legal end-of-life care options. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 442.4 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read: 442.4. When a health care provider makes a diagnosis that a patient has a terminal illness, the health care provider shall notify the patient of his or her right to comprehensive information and counseling regarding legal end-of-life options pursuant to Section 442.5.