Medi-Cal: hospital demonstration project funding: County of Los Angeles.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income persons receive health care benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid provisions. Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal Hospital/Uninsured Care Demonstration Project Act, which revises hospital reimbursement methodologies under the Medi-Cal program in order to maximize the use of federal funds consistent with federal Medicaid law and stabilize the distribution of funding for hospitals that provide care to Medi-Cal beneficiaries and uninsured patients. This demonstration project provides for funding, in supplementation of Medi-Cal reimbursement, to various hospitals, including designated public hospitals, nondesignated public hospitals, and private hospitals, as defined, in accordance with certain provisions relating to disproportionate share hospitals. Existing law establishes the continuously appropriated Private Hospital Supplemental Fund, and allows the California Medical Assistance Commission to distribute certain amounts from the fund to private hospitals that satisfy specified criteria. Existing law requires the County of Los Angeles to, for the 2007–08, 2008–09, and 2009–10 project years, make intergovernmental transfers to the state to fund the nonfederal share of increased Medi-Cal payments to those private hospitals that serve the South Los Angeles population formerly served by Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital. Existing law requires the intergovernmental transfers to be funded by county tax revenues and to total $5,000,000 per project year, subject to specified exceptions. Existing law requires these moneys to be deposited in the Private Hospital Supplemental Fund, thus constituting an appropriation, and distributed to the private hospitals designated by the county. This bill would additionally require the County of Los Angeles to make intergovernmental transfers to the state to fund the nonfederal share of increased Medi-Cal payments to those private hospitals that serve the South Los Angeles population formerly served by Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital for the 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2012–13 project years in accordance with the above-described provisions, thereby constituting an appropriation. Existing law provides for the payment of safety net care pool funds to designated public hospitals, or governmental entities with which they are affiliated, pursuant to the demonstration project. Existing law requires a maximum of $100,000,000 of the safety net care pool funds claimed and received by the state pursuant to the demonstration project, that are based on the certified public expenditures of the County of Los Angeles, or its designated public hospitals, to be deposited in the continuously appropriated South Los Angeles Medical Services Preservation Fund, for each of the 3 project years, 2007–08, 2008–09, and 2009–10, for the purpose of reimbursing counties for specified costs. This bill would extend the requirement for deposits into the South Los Angeles Medical Services Preservation Fund to the 2010–11, 2011–12, and 2012–13 project years, thus making an appropriation.