---
type: "Bill"
title: "Health care coverage: telehealth."
description: "Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Under existing law, face-to-face contact between a health care provider and a patient is not required under the Medi-Cal program for teleophthalmology, teledermatology, and teledentistry by store and forward. Existing law requires a Medi-Cal patient receiving teleophthalmology, teledermatology, or teledentistry by store and forward to be notified of the right to receive interactive communication with a distant specialist physician, optometrist, or dentist, and authorizes a patient to request that interactive communication."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 744"
citation: "California AB 744 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health care coverage: telehealth."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Aguiar-Curry"]
version_count: 10
action_count: 31
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2019-02-19"
last_action: "2019-10-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3845992f-7925-42a2-8901-d126867fd263"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB744"
source_hash: "2df222e1aa5516aed9afee6eb2f1acc453e8525ddac1aa6833b37855397aeb2e"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 744 (20192020) — Health care coverage: telehealth.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Under existing law, face-to-face contact between a health care provider and a patient is not required under the Medi-Cal program for teleophthalmology, teledermatology, and teledentistry by store and forward. Existing law requires a Medi-Cal patient receiving teleophthalmology, teledermatology, or teledentistry by store and forward to be notified of the right to receive interactive communication with a distant specialist physician, optometrist, or dentist, and authorizes a patient to request that interactive communication.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/19/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB744&version=20190AB74499INT)
2. **04/22/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB744&version=20190AB74498AMD)
3. **05/16/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB744&version=20190AB74497AMD)
4. **06/25/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB744&version=20190AB74496AMD)
5. **07/09/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB744&version=20190AB74495AMD)
6. **09/06/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB744&version=20190AB74494AMD)
7. **09/10/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB744&version=20190AB74493AMD)
8. **10/13/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB744&version=20190AB74491CHP)
9. **AB744** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB744)
10. **09/19/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB744&version=20190AB74492ENR)

## Votes

- 3rd Reading AB744 Aguiar-Curry By Dodd — **36–1** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **8–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **6–1** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended. — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **14–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 744 Aguiar-Curry Assembly Third Reading — **75–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 744 Aguiar-Curry Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **79–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Aguiar-Curry — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-02-19** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2019-02-20** From printer. May be heard in committee March 22.
- **2019-02-28** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-22** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on HEALTH. Read second time and amended. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-04-23** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-24** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (April 23). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-05-08** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2019-05-16** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 18. Noes 0.) (May 16). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-05-16** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-20** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-23** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 1941.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-05-24** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2019-06-06** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-19** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2019-06-25** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-07-08** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (July 3). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-07-09** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-08-12** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2019-08-30** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 6. Noes 1.) (August 30). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-08-30** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-06** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-09** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-10** Joint Rule 61 suspended. (Ayes 28. Noes 8. Page 2733.)
- **2019-09-10** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-13** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 36. Noes 1. Page 2919.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-13** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2019-09-13** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 3562.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-09-25** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2019-10-13** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2019-10-13** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 867, Statutes of 2019.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/3845992f-7925-42a2-8901-d126867fd263`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).