Medi-Cal: nursing facilities.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing federal law authorizes the state to obtain waivers for home- and community-based services. Existing law authorizes the department to seek an increase in the scope of these waivers, in order to enable additional nursing facility residents to transition into the community, subject to implementation of these amended waivers upon obtaining federal financial participation, and to the extent it can demonstrate fiscal neutrality within the overall department budget. This bill would authorize the department to seek additional increases in the scope of the home- and community-based Nursing Facility/Acute Hospital Waiver. The bill would require the department to, by February 1, 2016, apply for an additional 5,000 slots, to be added in the 2016–17 fiscal year, beyond those currently authorized for the waiver.