Nonprofit hospitals: charity care.

Existing law establishes the State Department of Public Health, under the direction of the State Public Health Officer, and sets forth its powers and duties, including, but not limited to, the licensing and regulation of health facilities. Existing law requires specified hospitals to maintain an understandable discount policy and charity care policy, and makes uninsured patients with high medical costs who are at or below 350% of the federal poverty level eligible to apply for participation. This bill would require, except as specified, a nonprofit general acute care hospital to annually provide charity care in an amount equaling at least 5% of the hospital's net patient revenue. The bill would require the State Public Health Officer to assess a penalty against noncomplying hospitals, would establish the Nonprofit Hospital Charity Care Penalty Fund, would require the revenues collected pursuant to these provisions to be deposited into the fund, and would declare these funds available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the support of the Medi-Cal program and for indigent care and safety net programs. The bill would authorize the State Department of Public Health and the Attorney General to assess reasonable fees, as specified, and bring or intervene in a civil action to collect fines and recover enforcement costs. This bill would require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) to, no later than January 1, 2016, issue a report to the Legislature addressing the unique accounting difficulties in calculating charity care for integrated nonprofit health systems and issue recommendations for how to calculate the amount of charity care required by these provisions. The bill would require each nonprofit hospital to file an annual report with the State Department of Public Health stating the amount of charity care provided by the hospital, and would require the State Department of Public Health to enter into an interagency agreement with OSHPD relating to the reporting and collection of data.