EXPLANATION: CAPITALS INDICATE MAT TER ADDED TO EXISTIN G LAW.
[Brackets] indicate matter deleted from existing law.
*hb0783*
HOUSE BILL 783
J1, J2 5lr2111
CF SB 458
By: Delegates Pena–Melnyk, Bagnall, Cullison, Kerr, and Rosenberg
Introduced and read first time: January 29, 2025
Assigned to: Health and Government Operations
A BILL ENTITLED
AN ACT concerning 1
Health Occupations – Structural Racism Training 2
FOR the purpose of requiring applicants for renewal of certain licenses and certain 3
certificates issued by certain health occupation boards to attest that the applicant 4
completed an implicit bias and structural racism training program, rather than an 5
implicit bias training program, approved by the Cultural and Linguistic Health Care 6
Professional Competency Program; and generally relating to structural racism 7
training programs. 8
BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments, 9
Article – Health – General 10
Section 20–1301, 20–1302, and 20–1306 11
Annotated Code of Maryland 12
(2023 Replacement Volume and 2024 Supplement) 13
BY repealing and reenacting, with amendments, 14
Article – Health Occupations 15
Section 1–225 16
Annotated Code of Maryland 17
(2021 Replacement Volume and 2024 Supplement) 18
SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MARYLAND, 19
That the Laws of Maryland read as follows: 20
Article – Health – General 21
20–1301. 22
(a) In this subtitle the following words have the meanings indicated. 23
2 HOUSE BILL 783
(b) “Cultural and linguistic competency” means cultural and linguistic abilities 1
that can be incorporated into therapeutic and medical evaluation and treatment, including: 2
(1) Direct communication in the patient’s primary language; 3
(2) Understanding and applying the roles that culture, ethnicity, and race 4
play in diagnosis, treatment, and clinical care; and 5
(3) Awareness of how the attitudes, values, and beliefs of health care 6
providers and patients influence and impact professional and patient relations. 7
(c) “Health care professional” includes a physician, nurse, dentist, social worker, 8
psychologist, pharmacist, health educator, or other allied health professional. 9
(d) “Implicit bias” means a bias in judgment that results from subtle cognitive 10
processes, including the following prejudices and stereotypes that often operate at a level 11
below conscious awareness and without intentional control: 12
(1) Prejudicial negative feelings or beliefs about a group that an individual 13
holds without being aware of the feelings or beliefs; and 14
(2) Unconscious attributions of particular qualities to a member of a 15
specific social group that are influenced by experience and based on learned associations 16
between various qualities and social categories, including race and gender. 17
(e) “Program” means the Cultural and Linguistic Health Care Professional 18
Competency Program. 19
(F) “STRUCTURAL RACISM” MEANS A SYSTEM OF IN HERITED 20
INSTITUTIONAL SETTIN GS THAT PROVIDE DIFF ERENTIAL OPPORTUNITI ES FOR 21
HEALTH CARE , EDUCATION, HOUSING, EMPLOYMENT , AND THE ENVIRONMENT TO 22
AN INDIVIDUAL BASED ON THE INDIVIDUAL ’S RACE. 23
20–1302. 24
(a) There is a Cultural and Linguistic Health Care Professional Competency 25
Program. 26
(b) The purpose of the Program is to: 27
(1) Provide for a voluntary program in which educational classes are 28
offered to health care professionals to teach health care professionals: 29
(i) Methods to improve the health care professionals’ cultural and 30
linguistic competency to communicate with non–English speaking patients and patients 31
from other cultures who are English speaking; 32
HOUSE BILL 783 3
(ii) Cultural beliefs and practices that may impact patient health 1
care practices and allow health care professionals to incorporate the knowledge of the 2
beliefs and practices in the diagnosis and treatment of patients; and 3
(iii) Methods to enable health care professionals to increase the 4
health literacy of their patients to improve the patient’s ability to obtain, process, and 5
understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health care 6
decisions; 7
(2) Establish and provide an evidence–based implicit bias training 8
program for health care professionals involved in the perinatal care of patients under § 9
20–1305 of this subtitle; and 10
(3) Identify and approve implicit bias AND STRUCTURAL RACIS M training 11
programs for health occupation licensure and certification under § 1–225 of the Health 12
Occupations Article. 13
20–1306. 14
(a) (1) The Program shall, in coordination with the Office of Minority Health 15
and Health Disparities, identify and approve implicit bias AND STRUCTURAL RACIS M 16
training programs that an individual may complete to satisfy the requirements of § 1–225 17
of the Health Occupations Article. 18
(2) The Program may approve only implicit bias AND STRUCTURAL 19
RACISM training programs under paragraph (1) of this subsection that are recognized by a 20
health occupations board established under the Health Occupations Article or accredited 21
by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. 22
(b) The Program shall provide a list of training programs approved under 23
subsection (a) of this section on request. 24
Article – Health Occupations 25
1–225. 26
(a) [An] SUBJECT TO SUBSECTION (B) OF THIS SECTION, AN applicant for the 27
renewal of a license or certificate issued by a health occupations board under this article 28
shall attest in the application that the applicant has completed an implicit bias AND 29
STRUCTURAL RACISM training program approved by the Cultural and Linguistic Health 30
Care Professional Competency Program under § 20–1306 of the Health – General Article. 31
(b) The [requirements of] REQUIREMENT UNDER subsection (a) of this section 32
THAT AN APPLICANT AT TEST TO THE COMPLETI ON OF AN IMPLICIT BI AS AND 33
STRUCTURAL RACISM TR AINING PROGRAM shall apply only to an applicant’s first 34
license or certificate renewal after April 1, [2022] 2026. 35 4 HOUSE BILL 783
SECTION 2. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That, if an applicant for the 1
renewal of a license or certificate issued by a health occupations board under the Health 2
Occupations Article is applying on or after the effective date of this Act but before April 1, 3
2026, for the applicant’s first license or certificate renewal, the applicant shall attest in the 4
application that the applicant has completed an implicit bias training program approved 5
by the Cultural and Linguistic Health Care Professional Competency Program under § 6
20–1306 of the Health – General Article. 7
SECTION 3. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, That this Act shall take effect 8
October 1, 2025. 9