Drug and Alcohol Testing of Doctors. Medical Negligence Lawsuits. Initiative Statute.

• Requires drug and alcohol testing of doctors and reporting of positive test to the California Medical Board.
• Requires Board to suspend doctor pending investigation of positive test and take disciplinary action if doctor was impaired while on duty.
• Requires doctors to report any other doctor suspected of drug or alcohol impairment or medical negligence.
• Requires health care practitioners to consult state prescription drug history database before prescribing certain controlled substances.
• Increases $250,000 cap on pain and suffering damages in medical negligence lawsuits to account for inflation.

Summary of Legislative Analyst's Estimate of Net State and Local Government Fiscal Impact:

• Increased state and local government health care costs from raising the cap on medical malpractice damages, likely ranging from the tens of millions of dollars to several hundred million dollars annually.
• Uncertain, but potentially significant, state and local government savings from new requirements on health care providers, such as provisions related to prescription drug monitoring and alcohol and drug testing of physicians. These savings would offset to some extent the health care costs noted above.