Birthing Justice for California Families Pilot Project.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services pursuant to a schedule of benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the department to convene a workgroup to examine the implementation of the Medi-Cal doula benefit, as specified. Existing law also requires the department, no later than July 1, 2024, to publish a report that addresses the number of Medi-Cal recipients utilizing doula services and identifies barriers that impede access to doula services, among other things. This bill would establish the Birthing Justice for California Families Pilot Project, which would include a 3-year grant program to provide grants to specified entities, including community-based doula groups, to provide doula care to members of communities with high rates of negative birth outcomes who are not eligible for Medi-Cal and incarcerated people. The bill would require the State Department of Public Health to take specified actions with regard to awarding grants, including awarding grants to selected entities on or before July 1, 2024. The bill would require a grant recipient to use grants funds to pay for the costs associated with providing doula care to eligible individuals and to establish, manage, support, or expand doula services, including technical assistance to nascent doulas or doula groups. The bill would require a grant recipient, in setting the payment rate for a doula being paid with grant funds, to comply with specified parameters, including that the payment rate not be less than the Medi-Cal reimbursement rate for doulas or the median rate paid for doula care in existing local pilot projects providing doula care in California, whichever is higher. The bill would require the department, on or before January 1, 2029, to submit a report to the appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature on the expenditure of funds and relevant outcome data for the pilot project. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2029.