Birthing Justice for California Families Pilot Project.

Existing law establishes the Department of Health Care Access and Information, which administers, among other programs, the California Reproductive Health Equity Program to ensure abortion and contraception services are affordable for and accessible to all patients and to provide financial support for safety net providers of these services. 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. Existing law requires the department to convene a workgroup to examine the implementation of the Medi-Cal doula benefit, as specified, and, 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 administered by the Department of Health Care Access and Information to provide grants to specified entities, including community-based doula groups, to provide full-spectrum doula care to pregnant and birthing people who are low income and do not qualify for Medi-Cal or who are from communities that experience high rates of negative birth outcomes. The bill would require the department to take specified actions with regard to awarding grants, including awarding grants to selected entities on or before January 1, 2025. The bill would require a grant recipient to use grants funds to pay for the costs associated with providing full-spectrum doula care to eligible individuals and establishing and managing doula services. 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, 2028, 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.