Ambulatory surgical centers.

(1) Existing law establishes the Elective Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) Program within the State Department of Public Health to allow the department to certify certain general acute care hospitals that are licensed to provide urgent and emergent cardiac catheterization laboratory service to perform scheduled, elective percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and stent placement for eligible patients. This bill would enact the California Outpatient Cardiology Patient Safety, Cost Reduction, and Quality Improvement Act. The bill would authorize the department, within the PCI Program, to certify an ambulatory surgical center to provide elective cardiac catheterization laboratory services that meet certain requirements to perform scheduled, elective percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and stent placement for eligible patients. The bill would authorize the department to, among other things, charge a certified ambulatory surgical center a fee for the reasonable regulatory costs to the state incident to granting this certification and to retain experts or establish one or more committees to analyze reports and advise the department, as specified. The bill would require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to annually report each certified ambulatory surgical center's performance on mortality, stroke rate, and emergency coronary artery bypass graft rate. (2) Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to license a freestanding cardiac catheterization laboratory that meets certain requirements, including having been active in a completed pilot program as a freestanding cardiac catheterization laboratory. This bill would authorize, beginning on January 1, 2021, an ambulatory surgical center certified to participate in the Medicare Program to perform cardiac catheterization laboratory services if certain requirements are met, including, among others, that the ambulatory surgical center complies with specified department regulations and only performs procedures on adults in an outpatient basis. (3) This bill would also make legislative findings and declarations in support of its provisions.