(a) A health care service plan that provides, operates, or contracts for telephone medical advice services to its enrollees and subscribers shall do all of the following: (1) Ensure that the in-state or out-of-state telephone medical advice service complies with the requirements of Chapter 15 (commencing with Section 4999) of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code. (2) Ensure that the staff providing telephone medical advice services for the in-state or out-of-state telephone medical advice service are licensed as follows: (A) For full service health care service plans, the staff hold a valid California license as a registered nurse or a valid license in the state within which they provide telephone medical advice services as a physician and surgeon or physician assistant, and are operating in compliance with the laws governing their respective scopes of practice. (B) (i) For specialized health care service plans providing, operating, or contracting with a telephone medical advice service in California, the staff shall be appropriately licensed, registered, or certified as a dentist pursuant to Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 1600) of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code, as a dental hygienist pursuant to Article 7 (commencing with Section 1740) of Chapter 4 of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code, as a physician and surgeon pursuant to Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 2000) of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code or the Osteopathic Initiative Act, as a registered nurse pursuant to Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 2700) of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code, as a psychologist pursuant to Chapter 6.6 (commencing with Section 2900) of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code, as an optometrist pursuant to Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 3000) of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code, as a marriage and family therapist pursuant to Chapter 13 (commencing with Section 4980) of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code, as a licensed clinical social worker pursuant to Chapter 14 (commencing with Section 4991) of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code, as a professional clinical counselor pursuant to Chapter 16 (commencing with Section 4999.10) of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code, or as a chiropractor pursuant to the Chiropractic Initiative Act, and operating in compliance with the laws governing their respective scopes of practice. (ii) For specialized health care service plans providing, operating, or contracting with an out-of-state telephone medical advice service, the staff shall be health care professionals, as identified in clause (i), who are licensed, registered, or certified in the state within which they are providing the telephone medical advice services and are operating in compliance with the laws governing their respective scopes of practice. All registered nurses providing telephone medical advice services to both in-state and out-of-state business entities registered pursuant to this chapter shall be licensed pursuant to Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 2700) of Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code. (3) Ensure that every full service health care service plan provides for a physician and surgeon who is available on an on-call basis at all times the service is advertised to be available to enrollees and subscribers. (4) Ensure that staff members handling enrollee or subscriber calls, who are not licensed, certified, or registered as required by paragraph (2), do not provide telephone medical advice. Those staff members may ask questions on behalf of a staff member who is licensed, certified, or registered as required by paragraph (2), in order to help ascertain the condition of an enrollee or subscriber so that the enrollee or subscriber can be referred to licensed staff. However, under no circumstances shall those staff members use the answers to those questions in an attempt to assess, evaluate
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