Office Of Regulations

Welcome to the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) - Office of Regulations (OOR) website. OOR is responsible for all of DHCS's rulemaking activities.  Rulemaking is the process by which regulations are developed and promulgated (adopted.) The rulemaking process is governed by the legal requirements set forth in the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and supporting APA regulations (Not DHCS).

Non-emergency regulatory proposals are proposed regulations that have not yet been adopted and are not yet in effect. DHCS issues a public notice announcing when proposed regulations are being made available for public comment.

Emergency regulatory proposals are regulations that have been adopted and in effect prior to a public comment period. While emergency regulations are in effect, they are made available for public comment and typically remain in effect for a limited period of 180 days. Regulations adopted on an emergency basis may still be modified in response to public comment.

Completed regulations are regulatory proposals that have completed the APA process, filed with the Secretary of State and are in effect.

The DHCS regulations that are in effect are published in the California Code of Regulations (CCR) (Not DHCS), Title 9, Division 1 and 4, Title 10, Title 17, Division 1 and Title 22, Divisions 2 and 3.

Public Notice

The public notice for each regulation proposal provides important information, including:

• A summary of the proposed or emergency regulatory action,
• A list of contact people,
• The date by which comments from the public must be received in the Office, and
• The time and location of the public hearing, if one is scheduled.

Public Comments

Public comments regarding both proposed and emergency regulations are solicited through public proceedings that provide for the submission of written comments, and may also provide for the submission of oral comments through a public hearing. All comments are considered equally on their merits.

Summaries of the comments received and responses to those comments may be found in the Final Statement of Reasons posted on this site following completion of the APA rulemaking procedures for the regulations. Written responses to each individual commenter are not prepared.

Regulations Mailing List

If you would like to be added to or deleted from the DHCS Regulations Mailing List, please complete and submit the Mailing List Form.