Alameda County Medical Center hospital authority.

Existing law authorizes the board of supervisors of Alameda County to establish an independent hospital authority strictly and exclusively dedicated to the management, administration, and control of the Alameda County Medical Center, and sets forth the powers and duties of the hospital authority, including, but not limited to, the power to contract for services required to meet its obligations. This bill would prohibit the hospital authority from entering into any contract with any private person or entity before January 1, 2024, to replace services being provided by physicians and surgeons who are employed by the hospital authority and in a recognized collective bargaining unit as of March 31, 2013, with services provided by a private person or entity without clear and convincing evidence that the needed medical care can only be delivered cost-effectively by a private contractor. The bill would require that the authority, prior to entering into a contract for any of those services, negotiate with the representative of the recognized collective bargaining unit of its physician and surgeon employees over the decision to privatize, and would require unresolved disputes to be submitted to final binding arbitration. Existing law establishes the hospital authority as a district for the purposes of providing retirement benefits under the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 and provides that employees of the hospital authority are eligible to participate in the county employees' retirement system to the extent permitted by law. Existing law establishes the Alameda County Employees' Retirement Association as a retirement system pursuant to the provisions of the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937. This bill would limit the participation of certain employees of the hospital authority, including those who are employees of a facility that is acquired by, or merged into, the hospital authority, in the Alameda County Employees' Retirement Association, subject to specified criteria. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for resolving the unique needs faced by the county with respect to the operation and administration of the medical center. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.