republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20212022/ab-326.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Health care service plans: Consumer Participation Program."
description: "Existing law, until January 1, 2024, requires the Director of the Department of Managed Health Care to establish the Consumer Participation Program, which allows the director to award reasonable advocacy and witness fees to a person or organization that represents consumers and has made a substantial contribution on behalf of consumers to the adoption of a regulation or with regard to an order or decision impacting a significant number of enrollees. By March 1, 2004, and annually thereafter, existing law requires the department to report to specified committees of the Legislature on prescribed information relating to the program, including the amount of reasonable advocacy and witness fees awarded."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20212022"
identifier: "AB 326"
citation: "California AB 326 (20212022)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health care service plans: Consumer Participation Program."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Luz Rivas"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 22
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2021-01-26"
last_action: "2021-10-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1f118e5f-63b8-4be1-bc8d-6eb1d5d44eb3"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB326"
source_hash: "12f3d662546e5a7f6f0942e5f86bf0cd67fc39c1cc0d1fdcbf0b57625e9139ee"
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 326 (20212022) — Health care service plans: Consumer Participation Program.

Existing law, until January 1, 2024, requires the Director of the Department of Managed Health Care to establish the Consumer Participation Program, which allows the director to award reasonable advocacy and witness fees to a person or organization that represents consumers and has made a substantial contribution on behalf of consumers to the adoption of a regulation or with regard to an order or decision impacting a significant number of enrollees. By March 1, 2004, and annually thereafter, existing law requires the department to report to specified committees of the Legislature on prescribed information relating to the program, including the amount of reasonable advocacy and witness fees awarded.

## Version chain

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

1. **01/26/21 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB326&version=20210AB32699INT)
2. **09/03/21 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB326&version=20210AB32698AMD)
3. **10/09/21 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB326&version=20210AB32696CHP)
4. **AB326** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB326)
5. **09/13/21 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB326&version=20210AB32697ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass — **5–2** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB326 Luz Rivas By Becker — **29–9** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **8–2** (pass) · upper
- AB 326 Luz Rivas Assembly Third Reading — **56–13** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **13–1** (pass) · lower
- AB 326 Luz Rivas Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **61–15** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **6–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **12–4** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Luz Rivas — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-01-26** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2021-01-27** From printer. May be heard in committee February 26.
- **2021-02-12** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2021-03-24** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 13. Noes 1.) (March 23). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-04-14** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 12. Noes 4.) (April 14). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-04-15** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-05-10** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 56. Noes 13. Page 1355.) `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`
- **2021-06-08** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2021-06-16** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 8. Noes 2.) (June 16). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2021-07-05** In committee: Referred to suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2021-08-26** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 5. Noes 2.) (August 26). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-08-26** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-09-03** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-09-07** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2021-09-08** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 29. Noes 9. Page 2516.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2021-09-08** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2021-09-09** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 61. Noes 15. Page 2970.). `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2021-09-17** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2021-10-09** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2021-10-09** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 741, 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/1f118e5f-63b8-4be1-bc8d-6eb1d5d44eb3`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).