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State of California Department of Justice
Rob Bonta
Attorney General
Attorney General
The Healthcare Rights and Access Section serves as the lead in proactive healthcare work, representing the Attorney General in his independent capacity and coordinating this work with others in the Department of Justice, including the Solicitor General’s Office and other legal sections in the Public Rights and Civil Law Divisions. The Section has comprehensive authority to work on any matters, including investigations, litigation, and legislation, that will increase and protect the affordability, accessibility, and quality of healthcare in the State of California. The Section is responsible for overseeing and leading all work in the areas of consumer healthcare rights, including prescription drug marketing and enforcing unfair competition and false advertisement laws against companies, providers, and individuals who are defrauding Californians; enforcing anticompetition laws in the healthcare context, including to curb high drug pricing; reproductive rights and justice; health equity and civil rights; reviewing nonprofit healthcare transactions; and public health work on tobacco, e-cigarettes, and other products. The Healthcare Rights and Access Section is also monitoring and defending against efforts that undermine the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid.
HRA’s Healthcare Consumer Protection Unit oversees and leads work in the areas of consumer healthcare rights, including healthcare privacy, medical debt, and deceptive and unfair practices by insurers, providers, drug companies, facilities, manufacturers of poor quality or fraudulent health related products, and other individuals and entities that engage in fraudulent, misleading, deceptive, or illegal practices in the healthcare market with broad impact on California consumers. Information concerning how to report healthcare-related complaints, including to HRA, can be found here.
With respect to patient privacy, HRA helps protect California patient and consumers’ rights regarding health information privacy. The law requires most doctors, HMOs, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers to give consumers notice describing the professional’s practices and rights concerning medical records. Additional information for consumers about healthcare privacy is available here.
The Reproductive Justice Unit, under the California Department of Justice’s Healthcare Rights Access Section, represents the Attorney General on reproductive healthcare matters with the goal of protecting access to sexual and reproductive healthcare for Californians and Americans across this country. More information about these efforts can be found here.
The HRA Competition Unit, conducts all antitrust and other competition-related work that impacts the healthcare markets in California. The section investigates and enforces California’s antitrust and unfair competition laws as well as federal antitrust laws as they might impact the affordability, accessibility, availability, and quality of healthcare services and pharmaceutical products. Typical matters include investigation and litigation over collusive pay-for-delay agreements between pharmaceutical companies, review of healthcare providers and drug companies in consolidated markets, antitrust cases against healthcare providers using anticompetitive contracts and conduct to inflate pricing, and investigations related to pricing and choice in the market.
HRA’s Health Facilities Unit leads reviews of nonprofit health facility transactions for the Attorney General under Corporations Code Section 5914 et seq. and 5920 et. seq., advising on any sale or transfer of a health facility owned or operated by a nonprofit corporation. California law requires the Attorney General’s review and consent for any sale or transfer of a health facility owned or operated by a nonprofit corporation. This requirement applies to health facilities that are licensed to provide 24-hour care, such as general acute care hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. The Attorney General utilizes this oversight authority to ensure healthy competition, protect access and quality, and preserve existing levels of service. For more information, including information about notices of nonprofit health facility transactions, please visit HRA's Nonprofit Health Facility Transaction page.
HRA’s Health Equity Unit takes a proactive role in identifying civil rights violations in the healthcare arena. The Attorney General is committed to protecting access to healthcare for all Californians regardless sex, including pregnancy, childbirth, gender identity, and gender expression; race inclusive of traits associated with race; color; religion, including religious belief, observance, and practice; ancestry; national origin; disability, including mental and physical disability; medical condition; genetic information; marital status; sexual orientation; citizenship; primary language; and immigration status. The unit represents the Attorney General in his independent capacity as California’s chief law officer to protect California residents, including women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other marginalized populations. HRA does so by engaging in affirmative litigation and filing amicus curiae briefs in cases brought by third parties in which significant healthcare civil rights issues will be resolved. More information about these efforts can be found here.
HRA’s Tobacco Unit holds the tobacco industry accountable for strict compliance with applicable marketing restrictions and payment obligations. In addition, the Tobacco Unit enforces a number of state laws and programs that regulate the promotion and sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products in the state, including the state's Tobacco Directory, Reserve Fund Statute, and Proposition 56 grant program. For more information please visit HRA’s Tobacco Litigation and Enforcement page.
HRA is committed to the strong and vigorous defense of California’s access to affordable care, most notably through its defense of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in Texas v. United States in the district court through proceedings at the U.S. Supreme Court. More information about this litigation can be found here.