---
type: "Bill"
title: "Health care practitioners: electronic prescriptions."
description: "Existing law requires health care practitioners authorized to issue prescriptions to have the capability to issue electronic data transmission prescriptions and requires a pharmacy, pharmacist, or other practitioner authorized to dispense or furnish a prescription to have the capability to receive electronic data transmission prescriptions. Existing law requires those health care practitioners to issue a prescription as an electronic data transmission prescription except under certain circumstances, including that the electronic prescription is unavailable due to a temporary technological or electrical failure. Existing law requires a pharmacy that receives an electronic prescription from a prescribing health care practitioner who has issued a prescription but has not dispensed the medication to, at the request of the patient, immediately transfer or forward the electronic prescription to an alternative pharmacy designated by the requester."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 852"
citation: "California AB 852 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health care practitioners: electronic prescriptions."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Wood"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 32
vote_count: 9
first_action: "2021-02-17"
last_action: "2022-09-25"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b61aa248-7829-419d-bc14-8a7e82da3cdf"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB852"
source_hash: "3582699d6a22e11a47bcf9b67eaba3ae8039e6974999f45d4d6409700ef40a27"
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 852 (20212022) — Health care practitioners: electronic prescriptions.

Existing law requires health care practitioners authorized to issue prescriptions to have the capability to issue electronic data transmission prescriptions and requires a pharmacy, pharmacist, or other practitioner authorized to dispense or furnish a prescription to have the capability to receive electronic data transmission prescriptions. Existing law requires those health care practitioners to issue a prescription as an electronic data transmission prescription except under certain circumstances, including that the electronic prescription is unavailable due to a temporary technological or electrical failure. Existing law requires a pharmacy that receives an electronic prescription from a prescribing health care practitioner who has issued a prescription but has not dispensed the medication to, at the request of the patient, immediately transfer or forward the electronic prescription to an alternative pharmacy designated by the requester.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/17/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB852&version=20210AB85299INT)
2. **04/18/22 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB852&version=20210AB85297AMD)
3. **04/21/21 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB852&version=20210AB85298AMD)
4. **06/23/22 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB852&version=20210AB85296AMD)
5. **08/22/22 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB852&version=20210AB85295AMD)
6. **09/25/22 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB852&version=20210AB85293CHP)
7. **AB852** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB852)
8. **09/02/22 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB852&version=20210AB85294ENR)

## Votes

- With recommendation: That Senate amendments be concurred in. — **15–0** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 852 Wood Assembly Third Reading — **75–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 852 Wood Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **75–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Judiciary] — **11–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **16–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB852 Wood By Dodd — **32–2** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Wood — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2021-02-18** From printer. May be heard in committee March 20.
- **2021-02-25** Referred to Com. on B. & P. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-20** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (April 20). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-21** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-04-22** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2021-05-05** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (May 5). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-05-06** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-05-24** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 1538.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-05-25** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2021-06-03** Referred to Coms. on B., P. & E.D. and JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2022-04-18** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on B., P. & E.D. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-22** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2022-06-23** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on B., P. & E.D. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-28** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on JUD. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (June 27). Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2022-06-28** Withdrawn from committee.
- **2022-06-28** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2022-08-01** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2022-08-08** In committee: Referred to suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2022-08-11** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (August 11). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-08-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-08-22** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2022-08-23** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2022-08-29** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 32. Noes 2. Page 5186.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2022-08-29** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2022-08-29** Re-referred to Com. on B. & P. pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.2. `referral-committee`
- **2022-08-30** Joint Rule 62(a), file notice suspended.
- **2022-08-30** From committee: That the Senate amendments be concurred in. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (August 30). `committee-passage`
- **2022-08-31** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 75. Noes 0.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2022-09-13** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2022-09-25** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2022-09-25** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 518, Statutes of 2022. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b61aa248-7829-419d-bc14-8a7e82da3cdf`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).