POSITIONS ON CALIFORNIA AND NEW YORK STATE HIV-RELATED LEGISLATION, 2017-2026

As a 501(c)3 charitable organization, the Beyond AIDS Foundation (BAF) is not primarily political, and an insignificant proportion of our income is devoted to activities that could be considered lobbying. Nevertheless, from time to time, we discover legislation that impacts the public health approach to HIV/AIDS and related diseases, and decide that an educational approach to legislators and their staff, from a perspective based on our expertise, could have a beneficial effect. Over the past decade, we have predominantly paid attention to state legislation in California, and to a lesser extent, New York State. Here are bills on which that our Board has expressed recommendations: 2017: BAF opposed California SB 239 (Wiener), which removed some criminal penalties for exposing others to HIV or other communicable diseases. When the bill passed the legislature, we asked for a veto, but it was signed. 2017/2019: BAF suppported California AB 1534 (Nazarian). This was to permit an HIV specialist to also be the patient's primary care provider. It passed but was vetoed in 2017. It was reintroduced in a different version in 2019 as AB 993, and again passed but was vetoed, apparently to prevent separate billing for the same day of service. 2019: BAF asked unsuccessfully for amendments to California SB 159 (Wiener), which permitted temporary dispensing of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) by pharmacist. This bill passed and was signed into law. We supported a proposed New York bill to make HIV testing more routine. This was part of a preliminary initiative, which did not become serious legislation that year. 2024: BAF initially opposed unless amended California AB 2960 (Lee), which would have called for syphilis screening of all women (but not men) of childbearing age to help prevent neonatal syphilis. We pointed out that prenatal screening was more cost-effective for that. We changed to a support position after the bill was amended. The bill did not pass. BAF supported SB 1333 (Eggman), which permitted public health staff to disclose HIV information to providers for purposes of linkage to or coordination of care, but did not permit disclosures in the reverse direction from providers to public health. We requested an amendment to that effect, but instead were promised collaboration the following year on a new bill (see SB 504 below). The bill passed and was signed into law. BAF was supportive of New York S7809 (Hoylman-Sigal) to simplify patient informing requirements for opt-out HIV testing. 2025: This was an active year for involvement in California legislation. BAF initiated the concept that became California bill SB 504 (Laird), to permit disclosures of HIV case information without liability among public health workers. We were successful in obtaining inclusion of wording to permit providers to disclose HIV information to public health staff for purposes of reducing transmission. Prior to this bill, providers could only disclose HIV information at the time of case reporting. This bill passed and was signed into law. BAF also supported California SB 278 (Cabaldon), which allowed disclosure of HIV information from public health to providers and to Medicaid Managed Care and quality improvment staff for improvement of care (we unsuccessfully requested an amendment to allow communications from a provider to public health staff). This bill also passed and was signed into law. BAF supported California AB 309 (Zbur), which permitted indefinite continuation of authorization for pharmacists to dispense syringes and needles without prescription. This bill also passed and was signed into law. BAF supported California AB 554 (M. Gonzalez), which would have prohibited prior authorization or cost-sharing for HIV medications. This passed but was vetoed. Two additional California bills were supported by BAF but did not pass the Legislature: AB 551 (Krell) would have provided grants to emergency departments for reproductive health. SB 608 (Menjivar) would have prohibited age restrictions for purchase of OTC contraceptives, and would also have permitted condom distributions in schools for grades 7-12. 2026: At this writing, the BAF Board is following, and tentatively supporting, Califonia AB 1843 (Elhawary) to eliminate prior authorization for hepatitis C medications. This represents an expansion of our interest beyond HIV to another disease that can be transmitted by injections or blood.