Health data: County of Ventura: super user pilot project.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and 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 law requires a health facility that maintains and operates an emergency department to provide emergency services and care to any person requesting the services or care for any condition in which the person is in danger of loss of life, or serious injury or illness, as specified. Existing law makes a violation of that provision a crime. Existing law, the Health Data and Advisory Council Consolidation Act, requires certain health facilities to make and file with the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development specified reports containing various financial and patient data and an Emergency Care Data Record for each patient encounter in a hospital emergency department. This bill would authorize the County of Ventura to conduct a 3-year super user pilot project, to predict which Medi-Cal beneficiaries are likely to become "super users," who are persons whose complex, unaddressed health issues result in frequent encounters with health care providers, in particular, emergency departments, and to develop and implement interventions for likely "super users." The bill would require certain county and state entities to provide the county with specified data, upon request, for purposes of the pilot project, including to obtain a historical perspective of its super users. The bill would require the data provisions to be implemented in accordance with applicable state and federal confidentiality laws. The bill would terminate the pilot project on December 31, 2022, and would require the county to report the results of the pilot project, including specified information, to relevant fiscal and policy committees of the Legislature by July 1, 2023. This bill would make these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2023, and would repeal them as of January 1, 2024. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.