The California Legislature voted to advance three bills that will significantly impact the Veterinary Medicine Practice Act.

AB 1999 (Kalra) (Coauthor Berman): Veterinary medicine.
CVMA Position: Co-Sponsor/Support

AB 1999 is co-sponsored by the CVMA, California Veterinary Medical Board (CVMB), San Diego Humane Society, and Social Compassion in Legislation. This measure aims to better protect California animals, support collaboration between shelters and veterinary professionals, and improve access to veterinary care through a combination of refining existing laws and adding new ones to the Business and Professions Code sections in the California Veterinary Medicine Practice Act. In essence, the bill does the following:

• Changes California’s Veterinarian-Client-Patient-Relationship (VCPR) law from “condition-specific” to “patient-specific.” By changing California’s VCPR law to align with nearly the rest of the country, California veterinarians will have more freedom to treat patients according to their individual situations. In turn, this significantly improves access to veterinary care by streamlining the provision of animal health care services.
• Creates two new licensing categories at the CVMB: (1) a “retired volunteer” license category for veterinarians and RVTs who volunteer at shelters, humane societies, or non-profit animal organizations, and (2) a “shelter veterinarian” license category to streamline licensure for veterinarians who are employed to work solely and exclusively at an animal control shelter or humane society.
• Improves California’s veterinary telemedicine law by incorporating new definitions of key terms, such as “telemedicine,” “teleconsultation,” and “teletriage,” and amending current language to clarify how telemedicine may be practiced in the state.
• Narrows California’s “owner-exemption” law, which permits animal owners to practice veterinary medicine on their own animals.

STATUS: AB 1999 passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 29 and is now awaiting a Floor vote in the Senate.

AB 2010 (Soria) Veterinary medicine: veterinary surgery premises: spay and neuter services.
CVMA Position: Support

AB 2010 eliminates the requirement for a separate room used for aseptic surgery exclusively at HQHVSN events. This change will enable HQHVSN providers to accommodate the large number of animals who need to be surgically sterilized. The bill was recently amended to officially define “HQHVSN” as “high-volume spay and neuter services” and to address several issues brought forth by the CVMB.

STATUS: AB 2010 passed the Senate Appropriations Committee with “consent” status on June 29 and is now awaiting a Floor vote in the Senate.

AB 1733 (Lee): License and registration renewal: continuing education.
CVMA Position: Support

AB 1733 changes California’s existing veterinarian and registered veterinary technician continuing education credit statute to attract veterinarians and RVTs to perform work at shelters and address California’s pet overpopulation crisis.

Existing law permits four units of CE credit to veterinarians who offer no-cost spay/neuter surgical services to an animal shelter and two units of CE credit to RVTs who offer spay/neuter assisting and support services to an animal shelter. However, the CE credit was previously classified in statute under a “self-study” category, which left little incentive for veterinarians or RVTs to actually volunteer at a shelter, given that “self-study” CE credit can be earned in numerous, less cumbersome ways. AB 1733 moves the pro-bono spay/neuter CE credit out of the “self-study” category into its own category. While the CE is considered “live-interactive,” it will be classified next to another existing CE option that permits veterinarians and RVTs who attend CVMB meetings to earn CE credit.

STATUS: AB 1733 was signed by the Governor on June 30 and will take effect January 1, 2027.