The existing federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 provides for the negotiation and execution of tribal-state gaming compacts for the purpose of authorizing certain types of gaming on Indian lands within a state. The California Constitution authorizes the Governor to negotiate and conclude tribal-state gaming compacts, subject to ratification by the Legislature. Existing law expressly ratifies a number of tribal-state gaming compacts, and amendments of tribal-state gaming compacts, between the State of California and specified Indian tribes. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project, as defined, that the agency proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, as defined, or to adopt a negative declaration if the agency finds that the project will not have that effect. This bill would ratify the tribal-state gaming compact entered into between the State of California and the Hoopa Valley Tribe, executed on October 19, 2018. The bill would provide that, in deference to tribal sovereignty, certain actions related to this compact are not projects for purposes of CEQA. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Sponsored bills
(1) 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 and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law also provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law requires that health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies provide coverage for certain services and treatments, including emergency medical transportation services. This bill would require a health care service plan contract or a health insurance policy issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2020, to provide that if an enrollee, insured, or subscriber (individual) receives covered services from a noncontracting air ambulance provider, the individual shall pay no more than the same cost sharing that the individual would pay for the same covered services received from a contracting air ambulance provider, referred to as the in-network cost-sharing amount. The bill would provide that an individual would not owe the noncontracting provider more than the in-network cost-sharing amount for services. The bill would authorize a noncontracting provider to advance to collections only the in-network cost-sharing amount that the individual has failed to pay. The bill would authorize a health care service plan, health insurer, or provider to seek relief in any court for the purpose of resolving a payment dispute, and would not prohibit a provider from using a health care service plan's or health insurer's existing dispute resolution processes. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law, the Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act, effective until January 1, 2022, imposes a penalty of $4 until January 1, 2020, upon every conviction for a violation of the Vehicle Code or a local ordinance adopted pursuant to the Vehicle Code, other than a parking offense. The act requires the county or the court that imposed the fine to transfer the moneys collected pursuant to that act to the Treasurer for deposit into the Emergency Medical Air Transportation and Children's Coverage Fund. Under the act, moneys in the fund are made available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the State Department of Health Care Services for children's health care coverage and administrative costs relating to emergency medical air transportation provider payments. Existing law requires the assessed penalty to continue to be collected, administered, and distributed until exhausted or until June 30, 2021, whichever occurs first, and requires any remaining unexpended and unencumbered moneys in the fund to be transferred to the General Fund, to be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for specified purposes, including funding children's health care coverage. This bill would impose the penalty until July 1, 2020, and would extend the above-specified dates by six months. (3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
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, and makes a willful violation of the act a crime. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. Existing law authorizes a health care service plan or health insurer to contract with a provider for alternative rates of payment, and requires a plan or insurer to continuously review the quality of care and performance of providers contracting for alternative rates of payment. Existing law requires a health care service plan or health insurer to publish and maintain a directory of contracting providers. This bill would authorize a health care service plan or health insurer that issues, sells, renews, or offers a plan contract or policy covering dental services, including a specialized health care service plan contract or specialized policy of health insurance, or a contracting entity, as defined, to grant a third party access to a provider network contract entered into on or after January 1, 2020, or access to services or discounts provided pursuant to that provider network contract if certain criteria are met, including if a health care services plan's or health insurer's provider network contract clearly identifies the third-party access provision and the provider network contract allows a provider to opt out of third-party access. The bill would specify that a provider is not bound by or required to perform dental treatment or services under a provider network contract granted to a third party in violation of these provisions. Because a willful violation of the bill's requirements relative to health care service plans would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law requires private not-for-profit hospitals to, among other things, adopt and update a community benefits plan, as defined, for providing community benefits either alone, in conjunction with other health care providers, or through other organizational arrangements. Existing law requires these hospitals to annually submit their community benefits plans to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development and, to the extent practicable, assign and report the economic value of community benefits provided. Existing law defines specified terms for purposes of these provisions and makes certain findings and declarations regarding the social obligation of private not-for-profit hospitals to provide community benefits in the public interest. This bill would require the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to annually prepare a report on community benefits, as specified, and post the report and the community benefit plans submitted by the hospitals on its internet website. The bill would authorize the office to impose fines not to exceed $5,000 on hospitals that fail to adopt, update, or submit community benefit plans. The bill would authorize the office to grant an extension under these provisions, as specified. The bill would require hospitals to assign and report the economic value of community benefits, and include a description of how needs identified in the assessment are being addressed. The bill would expand the provision that authorizes hospitals to file a consolidated community benefits report, as specified, and would require each hospital's community benefit report to contain an explanation of the methodology used to determine their costs. The bill would also require each hospital to annually post its community benefits plan on its internet website. The bill would revise the definition of community benefits to exclude activities or programs that are provided primarily for marketing purposes or are more beneficial to the organization than to the community. The bill would also revise the definition of hospital to include small and rural hospitals that are part of a hospital system, and to exclude certain health care district hospitals and nonprofit corporations affiliated with a health care district hospital, as specified. The bill would also make clarifying changes to existing law.
The Cartwright Act makes every trust, subject to specified exemptions, unlawful, against public policy, and void and defines "trust" for purposes of the act as a combination of capital, skill, or acts by 2 or more persons, defined as corporations, firms, partnerships, and associations, for certain designated purposes. Under existing law, these purposes include creating or carrying out restrictions in trade or commerce or preventing competition in manufacturing, marketing, transportation, sale, or purchase of merchandise, produce, or any commodity. The Unfair Practices Act makes certain business practices unlawful, including unfair competition. Under existing law, unfair competition is defined to include an unlawful, unfair, or fraudulent business act or practice, unfair, deceptive, untrue, or misleading advertising, and any false representations to the public. This bill would provide that an agreement resolving or settling, on a final or interim basis, a patent infringement claim, in connection with the sale of a pharmaceutical product, is to be presumed to have anticompetitive effects if a nonreference drug filer receives anything of value, as defined, from another company asserting patent infringement and if the nonreference drug filer agrees to limit or forego research, development, manufacturing, marketing, or sales of the nonreference drug filer's product for any period of time, as specified. The bill would provide various exceptions to this prohibition, including, among others, if the agreement has directly generated procompetitive benefits and the procompetitive benefits of the agreement outweigh the anticompetitive effects of the agreement. The bill would make a violation of these provisions punishable by a civil penalty that is recoverable only in a civil action brought by the Attorney General, as specified. The bill would provide that a violator is liable for any other remedies available under the Cartwright Act, the Unfair Practices Act, or the unfair competition law. The bill would require a cause of action to enforce those provisions be commenced within 4 years after the course of action accrued. The bill would define various terms for these purposes.
Existing provisions of the Warren-911-Emergency Assistance Act establish the number "911" as the primary emergency telephone number for use in the state and require the provision of enhanced service capable of selective routing, automatic number identification, or automatic location identification. The act requires a telephone corporation serving rural telephone areas that cannot provide enhanced 911 emergency telephone service capable of selective routing, automatic number identification, or automatic location identification to present to the Office of Emergency Services a comprehensive plan detailing a schedule by which their facilities will be converted to be compatible with the enhanced emergency telephone system. This bill would require the Office of Emergency Services, on or before July 1, 2020, to adopt, by regulation, appropriate thresholds for what constitutes a community isolation outage, as provided, and issue a specified notice for that regulation by January 1, 2020. The bill would, upon the adoption of those regulations, require a provider of telecommunications services, as defined, that provides access to 911 service to notify the office, as provided, whenever a community isolation outage limiting the provider's customers' ability to make 911 calls or receive emergency notifications occurs, within 60 minutes of discovering the outage. The bill would make the office responsible for notifying any applicable county office of emergency services, the sheriff of any county, and any public safety answering point affected by the outage. The bill would require the community isolation outage notification to the office to be provided by a medium specified by the office, and to include the telecommunications service provider's contact name, a calling number to be staffed as specified, a description of the estimated area affected, and the approximate communities affected by the outage. The bill would require the telecommunications service provider to notify the office of the estimated time to repair the outage and when service is restored. The bill would require the office, except as provided, to keep the community isolation outage notifications confidential. 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
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. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law requires the department to exercise its option under federal law to implement a program for aged and disabled persons, as described. Existing law requires an individual under these provisions to satisfy certain financial eligibility requirements. Existing law requires the department, to the extent required by federal law, to implement for Medi-Cal recipients who are qualified Medicare beneficiaries, the payment of Medicare premiums, deductibles, and coinsurance for elderly and disabled persons whose income does not exceed the federal poverty level or 200% of a specified Supplemental Security Income program standard. This bill would require the department to seek a Medicaid state plan amendment or waiver to implement an income disregard that would allow an aged, blind, or disabled individual who becomes ineligible for Medi-Cal benefits because of the state's payment of the individual's Medicare Part B premiums to remain eligible for the Medi-Cal program if their income and resources otherwise meet all eligibility requirements. The bill would authorize the department to implement this provision by provider bulletins or similar instructions until regulations are adopted. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations by July 1, 2021, and to provide a status report to the Legislature on a semiannual basis until regulations have been adopted.
(1) Existing law requires the Director of Forestry and Fire Protection to designate specified areas as very high fire hazard severity zones and requires a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains a building or structure in, upon, or adjoining a mountainous area, forest-covered lands, brush-covered lands, grass-covered lands, or land that is covered with flammable material to take specified measures to protect that building or structure from wildfires. This bill would require the Natural Resources Agency, by July 1, 2021, and in consultation with the State Fire Marshal and the Forest Management Task Force, to review the regional capacity of each county that contains a very high fire hazard severity zone to improve forest health, fire resilience, and safety, as specified. The bill would require the Natural Resources Agency to make the review publicly available on its internet website. On or after July 1, 2021, the bill would require a seller of real property located in a high or very high fire hazard severity zone to provide specified documentation to the buyer that the real property is in compliance with the wildfire protection measures described above or a local vegetation management ordinance, or enter into an agreement with the buyer pursuant to which the buyer will obtain documentation of compliance, as provided. (2) Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal, by January 31, 2020, to develop a list of low-cost retrofits that provide for comprehensive site and structure fire risk reduction to protect structures from fires spreading from adjacent structures or vegetation and to protect vegetation from fires spreading from adjacent structures. This bill, on or after January 1, 2021, would require the seller of any real property located in a high or very high fire hazard severity zone to provide a prescribed disclosure notice to the buyer, if the home was constructed before January 1, 2020, of information relating to fire hardening improvements on the property and a list of specified features that may make the home vulnerable to wildfire and flying embers and which features, if any, that exist on the home of which the seller is aware. The bill, on or after July 1, 2025, would require the disclosure notice to also include the State Fire Marshal's list of low-cost retrofits. The bill would also require a seller who has obtained a specified final inspection report to provide to the buyer a copy of that report or information on where a copy may be obtained. (3) Existing law establishes, within the office of the Governor, the Office of Emergency Services, under the direction of the Director of Emergency Services. Existing law charges the Office of Emergency Services with coordinating various emergency activities within the state. The Joint Exercise of Powers Act authorizes 2 or more public agencies, if authorized by their legislative or other governing bodies, to enter into an agreement to jointly exercise any power common to the contracting parties, as provided. That act requires, among other things, that the agreement state the purpose of agreement or power to be exercised and provides for the method by which the purpose will be accomplished or the manner in which the power will be exercised. This bill would require the Office of Emergency Services to enter into a joint powers agreement pursuant to the Joint Exercise of Powers Act with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to develop and administer a comprehensive wildfire mitigation program to, among other things, encourage cost-effective structure hardening and retrofitting to create fire-resistant homes, businesses, and public buildings. The bill would require the State Fire Marshal, in consultation with specified state officials, to identify building retrofits and structure hardening measures, and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to identify defensible space, vegetation management, and fuel modification activities, that are eligible for financial assistance under the program. The bill would specify the types of designated wildfire hazard areas eligible for funding under the program. The bill would authorize the joint powers authority administering the program to accept federal funds for the bill's purposes. The bill would require the joint powers authority to develop criteria and a scoring methodology to prioritize financial assistance provided through the program based on specific factors. The bill would impose specified reporting requirements on the joint powers authority and authorize it to enter into cooperative agreements with other federal, state, regional, and local agencies. The bill would make the operation of the program contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature and would repeal the program's provisions on July 1, 2025.
(1) Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which health care services are provided to qualified, low-income persons through various health care delivery systems, including managed care pursuant to Medi-Cal managed care plan contracts. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing federal regulations require a state that contracts with specified Medicaid managed care plans to develop and enforce network adequacy standards, to ensure that services covered under the Medicaid state plan are available and accessible to enrollees of specified Medicaid managed care plans in a timely manner, and to contract with a qualified external quality review organization (EQRO) to produce annually an external quality review technical report that summarizes findings on access and quality of care. Existing state law establishes, until January 1, 2022, certain time and distance and appointment time standards for specified services consistent with those federal regulations to ensure that Medi-Cal managed care covered services are available and accessible to enrollees of Medi-Cal managed care plans in a timely manner, and authorizes a Medi-Cal managed care plan to request approval from the department to use alternative access standards for the time and distance standards if specified conditions are met, including that the Medi-Cal managed care plan has exhausted all reasonable options to obtain providers to meet the applicable standard. Existing state law requires a Medi-Cal managed care plan to provide annually to the department, or upon the department's request, a report that demonstrates the Medi-Cal managed care plan's compliance with time and distance standards, and requires the EQRO to compile various data, by plan and by county, related to time and distance standards, including the number of requests for alternative access standards in the plan service area for time and distance. This bill would require a Medi-Cal managed care plan to provide to the department additional information in its request for the alternative access standards, including a description of the reasons justifying the alternative access standards, and to demonstrate to the department how the Medi-Cal managed care plan arranged for the delivery of Medi-Cal covered services to Medi-Cal enrollees, such as through the use of Medi-Cal covered transportation. The bill would require the department to evaluate, as part of its review and approval of an alternative access standard, if the resulting time and distance is reasonable to expect a beneficiary to travel to receive care. The bill would require a Medi-Cal managed care plan that has received approval from the department to utilize an alternative access standard to assist an enrollee who would travel farther than the established time and distance standards in obtaining an appointment with an appropriate provider within established appointment time and distance standards, to arrange for Medi-Cal covered transportation for the enrollee, as determined by the department, and to inform affected members of the approved alternative access standards. This bill would require the information compiled by the EQRO to include the extent to which each Medi-Cal managed care plan uses clinically appropriate telecommunications technology to meet established time and distance standards. (2) Existing law requires the Director of Health Care Services, in accordance with specified procedures, to either terminate a contract with or impose one or more specified sanctions, including civil penalties pursuant to federal law, on a prepaid health plan or Medi-Cal managed care plan if the department makes a finding of noncompliance or for other good cause. This bill would modify criteria for a finding of noncompliance or for other good cause under those provisions. The bill would expand the types of authorized sanctions and bases for sanctions, would raise the maximum limits of certain sanctions based on the number of violations, and would modify the terms of notice. The bill would require the department to use nonfederal moneys collected by the department under these provisions to be deposited into the General Fund for use, and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, would require these moneys to be used to address workforce issues in the Medi-Cal program and to improve access to care in the Medi-Cal program. The bill would condition the implementation of these requirements on receipt of any necessary federal approvals and the availability of federal financial participation. The bill would make technical and conforming changes related to these requirements. (3) Existing law requires the department to implement managed mental health care for Medi-Cal beneficiaries through contracts with county mental health plans. Under existing law, the county mental health plans are responsible for providing specialty mental health services to beneficiaries, and Medi-Cal managed care health plans are responsible for delivering nonspecialty mental health services to beneficiaries. Existing law requires the department to notify the mental health plan of the department's determination that a mental health plan has failed to comply with certain provisions, and authorizes the department to impose sanctions. Existing law authorizes the department, if the department imposes fines or penalties, to offset the fines from certain accounts, including the Mental Health Subaccount. This bill would instead extend the provisions described under paragraph (2) to mental health plans, and would apply those provisions to additional contractors. The bill would authorize the department to temporarily withhold payments of federal financial participation and payments from the above-described accounts until the department determines the contractor has come into compliance.
Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to enforce the rules governing the extension of service by a gas or electrical corporation to new residential, commercial, agricultural, and industrial customers. Existing law requires an electrical or gas corporation to permit a new or existing customer who applies for an extension of service from that corporation to install the extension in accordance with the regulations of the commission and any applicable specification of the corporation. This bill would provide that only those construction and design specifications, standards, terms, and conditions that are applicable to a new extension-of-service project by an electrical or gas corporation at the time the application for the extension of service is approved, as specified, apply to the new project for the 18 months following the approval date of the application. The bill would authorize an electrical or gas corporation to adopt modifications to those construction and design specifications, standards, terms, and conditions, as specified. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act is a crime. Because the above provision would be part of the act, a violation of which is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.