Health care management: health court demonstration program.

The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) enacts various health care coverage market reforms that take effect January 1, 2014. Among other things, PPACA authorizes the federal Secretary of Health and Human Services to award states with demonstration grants to develop and test alternatives to current tort litigation for resolving disputes over injuries allegedly caused by health care providers and organizations. States interested in receiving a grant are required to develop an alternative to current tort litigation and submit an application to the secretary. This bill would require the Secretary of California Health and Human Services to submit an application on behalf of the state to the federal Department of Health and Human Services to receive a grant for state demonstration programs to evaluate alternatives to current medical tort litigation, as authorized by PPACA. The bill would require the secretary to write the application to design a program to create health courts based upon a no-fault process to improve the injury resolution of liability. The bill would specify what items a patient would need to prove under the health court demonstration program.