---
type: "Bill"
title: "Dental services: third-party network access."
description: "Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care, and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law authorizes a health care service plan or health insurer to contract with a provider for alternative rates of payment, and requires a plan or insurer to continuously review the quality of care and performance of providers contracting for alternative rates of payment. Existing law requires a health care service plan or health insurer to publish and maintain a directory of contracting providers."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "AB 954"
citation: "California AB 954 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Dental services: third-party network access."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Wood"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 28
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2019-02-21"
last_action: "2019-10-07"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/86ec5643-17dc-48b3-811c-776f75c93ba4"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB954"
source_hash: "6dd41e08042e9106cf22474ad379c559b9b14271fc69ded5ff246433d6226352"
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 954 (20192020) — Dental services: third-party network access.

Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care, and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law authorizes a health care service plan or health insurer to contract with a provider for alternative rates of payment, and requires a plan or insurer to continuously review the quality of care and performance of providers contracting for alternative rates of payment. Existing law requires a health care service plan or health insurer to publish and maintain a directory of contracting providers.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/21/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB954&version=20190AB95499INT)
2. **03/27/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB954&version=20190AB95498AMD)
3. **05/16/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB954&version=20190AB95497AMD)
4. **07/01/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB954&version=20190AB95496AMD)
5. **10/07/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB954&version=20190AB95494CHP)
6. **AB954** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB954)
7. **09/13/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB954&version=20190AB95495ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 954 Wood Assembly Third Reading — **74–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 954 Wood Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **14–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- Special Consent AB954 — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended. — **18–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Wood — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-02-21** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2019-02-22** From printer. May be heard in committee March 24.
- **2019-03-04** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-26** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2019-03-27** 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`
- **2019-03-28** Re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-03** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (April 2). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-04-24** 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`
- **2019-05-28** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 74. Noes 0. Page 2038.) `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-05-29** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2019-06-06** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2019-06-17** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2019-06-27** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (June 26). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, amendment-introduction`
- **2019-07-01** 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 7. Noes 0.) (August 30). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-08-30** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-04** Ordered to special consent calendar.
- **2019-09-09** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2713.). `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-09** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 11 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2019-09-10** Assembly Rule 77 suspended. (Page 3252.)
- **2019-09-10** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 3305.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-09-19** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2019-10-07** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2019-10-07** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 540, Statutes of 2019.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/86ec5643-17dc-48b3-811c-776f75c93ba4`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).