AB 1234

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing law establishes the Advance Health Care Directive Registry allowing individuals to register a written advance health care directive with the Secretary of State. The information in the registry is accessible by specified entities, upon request. Under existing law, an electronic health care directive or power of attorney for health care is legally sufficient if it contains the date of its execution, is signed by either the patient or in the patient's name by another adult in the patient's presence and at the patient's direction, and is either acknowledged before a notary public or signed by at least 2 witnesses who satisfy specified requirements. Under existing law, the signatures required can be by a digital signature, as defined. Existing law defines a request regarding resuscitative measures as a written document, signed by an individual with capacity, or a legally recognized health care decisionmaker, and the individual's physician, directing a health care provider regarding resuscitative measures. Existing law defines a Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment form, which is commonly referred to as a POLST form, and provides that a request regarding resuscitative measures includes a POLST form. Existing law requires that a POLST form and the medical intervention and procedures offered by the form be explained by a health care provider. Existing law distinguishes a request regarding resuscitative measures from an advance health care directive. Under existing law, an advance care directive or substantially similar instrument executed in another state or jurisdiction is valid and enforceable to the same extent as an advance care directive validly executed in this state, as specified, and authorizes a physician or other health care provider to presume that an advance care directive or similar document is valid in the absence of knowledge to the contrary. This bill would establish similar provisions relating to the validity and enforceability of POLST forms and would allow an electronic signature to be used for the purposes of an advance health care directive and POLST form. The bill would enact the California POLST eRegistry Act, which would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to create a statewide electronic POLST registry system for the purpose of collecting a patient's POLST information received from a health care provider or the provider's designee and disseminating the information therein to an authorized user, as defined. The bill would require the agency to promulgate regulations necessary for the operation of the POLST eRegistry, as specified, and set timelines for implementation. The bill would allow an electronic representation of a POLST form and the electronic communication of the information contained in a POLST form to have the same legal standing as a paper hardcopy of a POLST form.