Corrections: contract health care providers.

Existing law authorizes the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to enter into contracts with providers of health care services to provide health care services to inmates. This bill would require the department, by January 1, 2011, to adopt industry standard claim forms for use by contract health care providers, to be able to accept electronic submissions of claims from contract health care providers, to perform periodic audits of claims paid to contract health care providers, and to provide remote electronic access to claim status information to contract health care providers. The bill would authorize the department to adopt policies and procedures for enabling electronic health care claims management and processing, and would exempt the adoption, amendment, and repeal of policies and procedures for this limited purpose from the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act.