Prisoners: hospital services.

Existing law authorizes the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, including the Division of Juvenile Facilities, to contract with providers of emergency health care services. Existing law requires hospitals that do not contract with the department for emergency health care services to provide those services on the same basis as they are required to be provided pursuant to specified federal regulations. Existing law prohibits the department from reimbursing a hospital that provides these services without a contract at a rate that exceeds reasonable and allowable costs, as defined by specified federal regulations and publications. The bill would create the Hospital Interim Payment Fund, as a continuously appropriated fund in the State Treasury, for the purpose of making payments to hospitals, for services provided on or after July 1 of the fiscal year for which no budget has been enacted or before November 1 of that year for the purpose of making payments to hospitals, during the period in which the program has a deficiency. The bill would also appropriate from the General Fund, in the form of loans, for each fiscal year in which these payments are necessary, an amount equal to a cumulative total of 33% of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's annual payments to all hospitals in any fiscal year.