republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-451.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Health care facilities: treatment of psychiatric emergency medical conditions."
description: "Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of general acute care hospitals and acute psychiatric hospitals by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires emergency services and care to be provided, as specified, at a licensed health facility that maintains and operates an emergency department to provide emergency services to the public when the health facility has appropriate facilities and qualified personnel available to provide the services or care. Existing law requires emergency services and care, including screening, examination, and evaluation to determine if a psychiatric emergency medical condition exists and the care and treatment necessary to relieve or eliminate the psychiatric emergency medical condition, to be provided to any person requesting the services or care. A knowing and intentional violation of these provisions is a crime."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 451"
citation: "California AB 451 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health care facilities: treatment of psychiatric emergency medical conditions."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Arambula"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 23
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2021-02-08"
last_action: "2021-10-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/975387ca-f3f9-4fc4-b69c-fce74feb013f"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB451"
source_hash: "b73ca1a8a5fe61129fd5f9cda76b7ad8911f89b12b3189f6e56dbb1635bd73c7"
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 451 (20212022) — Health care facilities: treatment of psychiatric emergency medical conditions.

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of general acute care hospitals and acute psychiatric hospitals by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires emergency services and care to be provided, as specified, at a licensed health facility that maintains and operates an emergency department to provide emergency services to the public when the health facility has appropriate facilities and qualified personnel available to provide the services or care. Existing law requires emergency services and care, including screening, examination, and evaluation to determine if a psychiatric emergency medical condition exists and the care and treatment necessary to relieve or eliminate the psychiatric emergency medical condition, to be provided to any person requesting the services or care. A knowing and intentional violation of these provisions is a crime.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/08/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB451&version=20210AB45199INT)
2. **08/31/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB451&version=20210AB45198AMD)
3. **10/01/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB451&version=20210AB45196CHP)
4. **AB451** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB451)
5. **09/10/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB451&version=20210AB45197ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **9–1** (pass) · upper
- AB 451 Arambula Assembly Third Reading — **73–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **15–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **16–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB451 Arambula By Roth — **36–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 451 Arambula Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **79–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Arambula — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-02-08** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2021-02-09** From printer. May be heard in committee March 11.
- **2021-02-18** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2021-04-07** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (April 6). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-14** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (April 14). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-15** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-04-19** From Consent Calendar.
- **2021-04-19** Ordered to third reading.
- **2021-05-10** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 73. Noes 0. Page 1356.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-05-11** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2021-05-19** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2021-06-10** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 1.) (June 10). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-06-21** From committee: Be ordered to second reading pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2021-06-22** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-08-31** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-09-01** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-09-07** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 36. Noes 0. Page 2451.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-09-07** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 9 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2021-09-08** Assembly Rule 77 suspended. (Ayes 59. Noes 17. Page 2875.)
- **2021-09-08** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 2903.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-09-15** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 5 p.m.
- **2021-10-01** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-10-01** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 438, Statutes of 2021. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/975387ca-f3f9-4fc4-b69c-fce74feb013f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).