Personal services contracts: state employees: physician positions.

Assembly Members Connolly and Addis propose new oversight requirements for physician contracting at California's corrections and state hospital departments, establishing a framework that requires cost comparisons before engaging contract medical staff. The legislation mandates that these departments analyze the hourly costs between contractors and civil service physicians from the Bargaining Unit 16 (BU-16) registry prior to filling budgeted physician positions through personal services contracts.

The measure creates specific procedural requirements for physician hiring, directing departments to prioritize registry physicians when their costs are lower than contractors. Under the proposed system, departments must reference the established physician registry, as defined in the BU-16 collective bargaining agreement, to determine accurate cost comparisons for civil service medical staff, including psychiatrists.

To ensure transparency, the legislation institutes annual reporting requirements for both departments. By January 15 each year, they must submit detailed information to BU-16 and legislative budget committees documenting the previous fiscal year's hiring analyses, contractor employment data, and registry physician utilization. These reports must include the number of cost analyses performed, total contractors employed with associated costs, and statistics on civil service physicians working extra registry shifts with corresponding expenditures.