Anyone Familiar with California Proposition 29?

Hmmm...not a fan, allow me to explain;

I've worked as a pct and as a biomed.

To the first point...why does there need to be a doctor (or doctor level person) PRESENT just for treatments?  A charge nurse (RN) per 16 patients is plenty sufficient, always was in the clinics I worked in.  I've worked for the two largest dialysis companies in the U.S. (both listed above) and one 5 hospital private entity.  At no point did I feel there was a need for anything more than they kidney doc who made a round each shift maybe once a week, one charge nurse per 16 patients, and one pct per 4 patients (per shift), and the support staff such as one dietician/social worker/etc who rounded once a week.  Patients needs were met, if there was a new need they informed the charge nurse or pct and that was immediately passed to the physician on call and addressed.  As for patient safety, the pcts and RN were more than enough to deal with patients passing out, cramping, and codes.  What benefit is there having a doc or someone of that degree of education on staff all day every day?  none...the docs/nurse pract/or the like also make rounds in hospitals and at their offices...this would put an unnecessary burden on them and for no benefit.  This measure seems unnecessary and would actually cause a greater cost that simply doesn't do anything

second point, dialysis related infections are already reported...there are VERY strict guidelines regarding this and inspections occur to make sure no one is covering up incidents.  Also, if patients even suspect a cover up occurs they can VERY easily contact state and they WILL come and investigate.  In fact, a patient complaining that they didn't get a blanket will actually prompt a state inspection by a state inspector and if you think for one second that inspector/auditor is on the side of the dialysis company then you've never had one visit your clinic...they absolutely are NOT.  EVERY incident, especially infections related to dialysis (oh and even infections NOT related to dialysis) are reported to the parent company and to the state.  In fact, if a dialysis patient is admitted to the hospital the hospital AND the clinic MUST report that (and that they are a dialysis patient) to the state EVEN IF that hospitalization has NOTHING to do with them being on dialysis...if they are discharged and re-admitted within 30 days (again even if not related to being on dialysis) the hospital reports that to the state, the clinic does to, and the clinic receives a negative mark from the state.  EVERY month we have a safety meeting, every company I've worked for in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma do any way...in which all of this very data (and more) is reported...it was never covered up or hid in any way/shape/form.  But that isn't all, patient clearance, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, and a slurry of other lab values were also reported on by staff who were not "loyal" to any one clinic.  In fact even the patients adherence to certain diets is  reported in these LONG meetings and everyone got a LENGTHY print out of every report.  So there's no need to make another law for something that is already not only a city law, and a state law, but actually a federal law already AND being followed and being followed ad nauseam.  btw these monthly meetings normally take about 1-2 hours with everyone trying to get through them asap.  and yes the doctor is present, as well as the clinical directors, clinic manager, charge nurse, biomed, dietician, social worker, etc etc...and each of them has to provide a report on their specific duties/observations/improvements and/or short comings.

third point, in all my years as a pct and biomed I have NEVER observed or even heard about anyone being discriminated against for any reason and certainly not because they don't have private insurance.  In fact I had to go on dialysis for 4 months just before I became a pct, my insurance hadn't kicked in yet as I had just changed to this job/company.  The company I got dialysis from, the social worker worked with me and the state to get my treatments 100% covered...I never paid a dime for the catheter placement, to the dialysis clinic nor the physician who saw me in the clinic, nor the catheter removal.  Treatments can cost over 30k a month btw.  Now after my insurance finally kicked in (a couple months after my treatments ended and I began working full time) and I saw my nephrologist once after my treatment had concluded (my kidneys began working after 4 months) my insurance was billed and I just paid my co-pay.  MOST of our patients at every clinic were on medicare/medicaid...no one looked down on them or gave them a hard time in any way...in fact the only people who knew this was the lady who got them into programs to have those methods used to pay for their treatment...no one else even knew.  The only hard time they got was for missing a treatment (which each missed treatment means a 25% increase risk of sudden death) or for not completing their treatment.  Again, no one actually treating them even knew (or cared) how their treatment was being covered.

In my opinion, this is a wholly useless bill (it's all already being done and very well too) and, if anything, would cause more harm and greater cost to private insurance, medicare, and medicaid for zero benefit to the patient.

*I typically don't read replies to such posts, I just post my opinion...so sorry if anything has already been covered or addressed.  just giving my observations