California Assembly Bill AB684 Introduced / Bill

 BILL NUMBER: AB 684INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bonilla FEBRUARY 25, 2015 An act to amend Section 4200.3 of the Business and Professions Code, relating to healing arts. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 684, as introduced, Bonilla. Pharmacy. Existing law, the Pharmacy Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of pharmacists by the California State Board of Pharmacy within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law authorizes the board to license as a pharmacist an applicant who meets specified requirements, including passage of the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination. Existing law requires the examination process to meet specified standards and federal guidelines and requires the board to terminate use of that examination if the department determines that the examination fails to meet those standards. Existing law requires the board to report to the now obsolete Joint Committee on Boards, Commissions, and Consumer Protection and the department specified examination pass rate information. This bill would instead require the board to report that pass rate information to the appropriate policy committees of the Legislature and the department. The bill would also make nonsubstantive changes to those provisions. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 4200.3 of the Business and Professions Code is amended to read: 4200.3. (a) The examination process shall be regularly reviewed pursuant to Section 139. (b) The examination process shall meet the standards and guidelines set forth in the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing and the  Federal   federal  Uniform Guidelines  for   on  Employee Selection Procedures. The board shall work with the Office of Professional Examination Services of the department or with an equivalent organization who shall certify at minimum once every five years that the examination process meets these national testing standards. If the department determines that the examination process fails to meet these standards, the board shall terminate its use of the North American  Pharmacy   Pharmacist  Licensure Examination and shall use only the written and practical examination developed by the board. (c) The examination shall meet the mandates of subdivision (a) of Section 12944 of the Government Code. (d) The board shall work with the Office of Professional Examination Services or with an equivalent organization to develop the state jurisprudence examination to ensure that applicants for licensure are evaluated on their knowledge of applicable state laws and regulations. (e) The board shall annually publish the pass and fail rates for the pharmacist's licensure examination administered pursuant to Section 4200, including a comparison of historical pass and fail rates before utilization of the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination. (f)    (1)  The board shall report to the  Joint Committee on Boards, Commissions, and Consumer Protection   appropriate policy committees of the Legislature  and the department as part of its next scheduled review, the pass rates of applicants who sat for the national examination compared with the pass rates of applicants who sat for the prior state examination. This report shall be a component of the evaluation of the examination process that is based on psychometrically sound principles for establishing minimum qualifications and levels of competency.  (2) This subdivision shall become inoperative on January 1, 2020, pursuant to Section 10231.5 of the Government Code.