Health care: physician loan repayment.

Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care. Existing law creates the Managed Care Administrative Fines and Penalties Fund, into which certain fines and penalties paid by health care service plans are deposited. Under existing law, $1,000,000 is annually transferred from the Managed Care Administrative Fines and Penalties Fund to the Medically Underserved Account for Physicians to be used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to repay the loans of physicians in medically underserved areas through the Steven M. Thompson Physician Corps Loan Repayment Program. Existing law requires participants in the Steven M. Thompson Physician Corps Loan Repayment Program to have full-time status in an eligible practice setting. Existing law defines "practice setting," for purposes of the program, to include a community clinic, a clinic owned or operated by a public hospital and health system, or a clinic owned and operated by a hospital that is located in a medically underserved area and at least 50% of whose patients are from a medically underserved population, or a physician owned and operated medical practice setting that provides primary care located in a medically underserved area and has a minimum of 50% of patients who are uninsured, Medi-Cal beneficiaries, or beneficiaries of another publicly funded program. This bill would instead require $2,000,000 to be annually transferred from the Managed Care Administrative Fines and Penalties Fund to the Medically Underserved Account for Physicians. The bill would define "practice setting" to additionally include a program or facility operated by, or contracted to, a county mental health plan.