Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and 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. Under existing law, the Medi-Cal program administers the Family Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment (Family PACT) Program within the department to provide comprehensive clinical family planning services to a person with a family income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. Existing law requires reimbursement rates for office visits billed as comprehensive clinical family planning services by Family PACT providers or Medi-Cal providers to receive a rate augmentation equal to the weighted average of at least 80% of the amount that the federal Medicare program reimburses for the same or similar office visits. This bill would, subject to an appropriation by the Legislature and any potential draw down of federal matching funds, require an office visit to a Family PACT provider or Medi-Cal provider for specified services for uninsured, income-eligible patients, or patients with health care coverage who have confidentiality concerns, who are not at risk of experiencing or causing an unintended pregnancy, and who are not in need of contraceptive services, to be reimbursed at the same rate as comprehensive clinical family planning services. The bill would require the department to issue a report to the Legislature on certain information such as the total number of persons treated under this provision and the total cost, among other things. Existing law, under specified conditions, includes in the benefits for Medi-Cal and the Family PACT program home test kits for sexually transmitted diseases and the laboratory testing required to process those kits that are deemed medically necessary or appropriate and ordered directly by a health care provider or furnished through a standing order for patient use based on clinical guidelines and individual patient health needs. Existing law requires that a home test kit be sent by the enrolled Medi-Cal or Family PACT provider to a laboratory. This bill would leave unspecified who would be required to send the home test kits. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 14132 of the Welfare and Institutions Code proposed by AB 1929 and SB 912 to be operative only if this bill, AB 1929, and SB 912 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.
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Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health facilities, including skilled nursing facilities, by the State Department of Public Health. A violation of those provisions is a crime. Existing law requires health facilities to submit specified financial reports to the Department of Health Care Access and Information. Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. This bill would require, no later than July 1, 2023, the establishment of a direct patient-related services spending, reporting, and rebate requirement for skilled nursing facilities, with exceptions. Under the direct patient-related services spending requirement, the bill would require that a minimum of 85% of a facility's total non-Medicare health revenues from all payer sources in each fiscal year be expended on residents' direct patient-related services, as defined. The bill would require a facility to report total revenues collected from all revenue sources, along with the portion of revenues that are expended on all direct patient-related services and nondirect patient-related services, to the State Department of Health Care Services by June 30 of each calendar year, with certification signed by a duly authorized official, as specified. The bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to conduct an audit of the financial information reported by the facilities, to ensure its accuracy and to identify and recover any payments that exceed the allowed limit, as specified. The bill would require the department to conduct the audit every 3 years, at the same time as the facility's Medi-Cal audit. If a skilled nursing facility fails to comply with the direct patient-related services spending requirement, the bill would require the facility to issue a pro rata dividend or credit to the state and to all individuals and entities making non-Medicare payments to the facility for resident services, as specified. The bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services to ensure that those payments are made and to impose sanctions, as specified. The bill would also authorize the department to withhold certain payments from a skilled nursing facility licensee for failure to fully disclose information, as specified. Because a violation of these requirements 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 health care practitioners authorized to issue prescriptions to have the capability to issue electronic data transmission prescriptions and requires a pharmacy, pharmacist, or other practitioner authorized to dispense or furnish a prescription to have the capability to receive electronic data transmission prescriptions. Existing law requires those health care practitioners to issue a prescription as an electronic data transmission prescription except under certain circumstances, including that the electronic prescription is unavailable due to a temporary technological or electrical failure. Existing law requires a pharmacy that receives an electronic prescription from a prescribing health care practitioner who has issued a prescription but has not dispensed the medication to, at the request of the patient, immediately transfer or forward the electronic prescription to an alternative pharmacy designated by the requester. This bill would prohibit a pharmacy, pharmacist, or other practitioner authorized to dispense or furnish a prescription from refusing to dispense or furnish an electronic prescription solely because the prescription was not submitted via, or is not compatible with, their proprietary software. The bill would authorize a pharmacy, pharmacist, or other authorized practitioner to decline to dispense or furnish an electronic prescription submitted via software that fails to meet any one of specified criteria, including compliance with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. The bill would establish additional exceptions to the requirement that health care practitioners issue a prescription as an electronic data transmission prescription, including for a prescriber who registers with the California State Board of Pharmacy and states that they satisfy one or more criteria, including that they issue 100 or fewer prescriptions per calendar year. The bill would make specified exceptions to the requirement for a pharmacy to immediately transfer an electronic prescription to an alternative pharmacy upon request of the patient, including if the action would result in a violation of any state or federal law.
Existing sales and use tax laws impose taxes on retailers measured by the gross receipts from the sale of tangible personal property sold at retail in this state, or on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of tangible personal property purchased from a retailer for storage, use, or other consumption in this state. The Sales and Use Tax Law provides various exemptions from those taxes, including a partial exemption from those taxes, on and after July 1, 2014, and before July 1, 2030, for the gross receipts from the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, qualified tangible personal property purchased by a qualified person for purchases not exceeding $200,000,000, for use primarily in manufacturing, processing, refining, fabricating, or recycling of tangible personal property, as specified; qualified tangible personal property purchased for use by a qualified person to be used primarily in research and development, as provided; qualified tangible personal property purchased for use by a qualified person to be used primarily to maintain, repair, measure, or test any qualified tangible personal property, as provided; and qualified tangible personal property purchased by a contractor purchasing that property for use in the performance of a construction contract for the qualified person, that will use that property as an integral part of specified processes. Existing law, on and after January 1, 2018, and before July 1, 2030, additionally exempts from those taxes the sale of, and the storage, use, or other consumption of, qualified tangible personal property purchased for use by a qualified person to be used primarily in the generation or production, as defined, or storage and distribution, as defined, of electric power. This bill would, on and after January 1, 2023, and before January 1, 2028, make this a full exemption for purchases not exceeding $200,000,000. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2028, and would revert to the above-described partial exemption on that date. Existing law requires any bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals, purposes, and objectives that the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would require the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration to submit a report to the Legislature on the exemption and would provide findings and declarations relating to the goals of the exemption. The Bradley-Burns Uniform Local Sales and Use Tax Law authorizes counties and cities to impose local sales and use taxes in conformity with the Sales and Use Tax Law, and existing laws authorize districts, as specified, to impose transactions and use taxes in accordance with the Transactions and Use Tax Law, which generally conforms to the Sales and Use Tax Law. Amendments to the Sales and Use Tax Law are automatically incorporated into the local tax laws. Existing law requires the state to reimburse counties and cities for revenue losses caused by the enactment of sales and use tax exemptions. This bill would provide that, notwithstanding Section 2230 of the Revenue and Taxation Code, no appropriation is made and the state shall not reimburse any local agencies for sales and use tax revenues lost by them pursuant to this bill. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.
Existing federal law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , requires each state to establish an American Health Benefit Exchange to facilitate the purchase of qualified health benefit plans by qualified individuals and qualified small employers. Existing state law creates the California Health Benefit Exchange (Exchange) , also known as Covered California, to facilitate the enrollment of qualified individuals and qualified small employers in qualified health plans as required under PPACA. Existing law requires the Exchange, in consultation with stakeholders and the Legislature, to develop options for providing cost-sharing reduction subsidies to reduce cost sharing for low- and middle-income Californians, and requires the Exchange to report the developed options on or before January 1, 2022. Existing law requires the options to include, among other things, options for all Covered California enrollees with income up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level to reduce cost sharing, including copays, deductibles, coinsurance, and maximum out-of-pocket costs. This bill would require the Exchange to implement those options for providing health care affordability assistance. The bill would require the affordability assistance to reduce cost-sharing, including copays, coinsurance, and maximum out-of-pocket costs, if specified enhanced federal premium subsidies are made available for the 2023 and 2024 calendar years, and to eliminate deductibles for all benefits to the extent feasible. The bill would require the Exchange to adopt standard benefit designs consistent with these specifications. Existing law requires the Exchange to administer a program of health care coverage financial assistance to help low-income and middle-income Californians. Existing law authorizes this program to provide financial assistance to California residents with household incomes at or below 600% of the federal poverty level, and to provide other appropriate subsidies designed to make health care coverage more accessible and affordable for individuals and households. This bill would require the program to provide that financial assistance and other appropriate subsidies if funded through an appropriation.
Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to identify areas in the state as moderate, high, and very high fire hazard severity zones based on specified criteria. Existing law, the California Building Standards Law, establishes the California Building Standards Commission within the Department of General Services. Existing law requires the commission to approve and adopt building standards and to codify those standards in the California Building Standards Code, which is required to be published once every 3 years. This bill would require the State Fire Marshal, prior to the next triennial edition of the California Building Standards Code adopted after January 1, 2023, to research and develop, and would authorize the State Fire Marshal to propose to the California Building Standards Commission, mandatory building standards for fire resistance based on occupancy risk categories in very high, high, and moderate California fire severity zones in state responsibility areas, local responsibility areas, and in land designated as a Wildland Urban Interface Fire Area by cities and other local agencies under specified provisions of the California Building Standards Code. The bill would require those building standards to apply to nonresidential, critical infrastructure buildings and to include certain fire rating requirements for structures under specified risk categories. The bill also would require the California Building Standards Commission to consider for adoption the building standards proposed by the State Fire Marshal pursuant to these provisions.
Existing law requires school districts and county offices of education to be responsible for the overall development of a comprehensive school safety plan for each of its schools operating kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive. Existing law requires the schoolsite council of a school to write and develop the comprehensive school safety plan relevant to the needs and resources of that particular school, in consultation with a representative from a law enforcement agency, a fire department, and other first responder entities. Existing law requires a petition to establish a charter school to include, among other things, a reasonably comprehensive description of the procedures that the charter school will follow to ensure the health and safety of pupils and staff, including requiring the development and annual update of a school safety plan that includes certain safety topics and procedures. This bill would establish the Emergency Planning Grant Program, under the administration of the State Department of Education, and would require the department, upon an appropriation by the Legislature, to award $1,000,000 in competitive grants to local educational agencies, as defined, to support emergency planning activities, including coordination with local emergency management systems and assessment of climate threats to the geographic area of the local educational agency. The bill would require the department, among other things, to prioritize grant awards for local educational agencies that face the greatest risk of, or have less capacity to prepare and respond to, climate threats without state assistance and to award grants by January 1, 2024. The bill would make these provisions inoperative on January 1, 2027.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and 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 prohibits the use of an assets or resources test for individuals whose financial eligibility for Medi-Cal is determined based on the application of a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) standard, as specified. Existing law prohibits the use of resources, including property or other assets, to determine Medi-Cal eligibility for applicants or beneficiaries whose eligibility is not determined using the MAGI-based financial methods, and requires the department to seek federal authority to disregard all resources as authorized by the flexibilities provided under federal law. Existing law conditions implementation of that provision on the Director of Health Care Services determining that systems have been programmed for those disregards and their communicating that determination in writing to the Department of Finance, no sooner than January 1, 2024. Existing law also conditions implementation of that provision on receipt of any necessary federal approvals and the availability of federal financial participation. Existing law states the intent of the Legislature to provide, to the extent practicable, through the Medi-Cal program, for health care for those aged and other persons, including family persons who lack sufficient annual income to meet the costs of health care, and whose other assets are so limited that their application toward the costs of that care would jeopardize the person or family's future minimum self-maintenance and security. This bill would, commencing on the date that the resource disregards are implemented, remove from that statement of legislative intent the above-described assets as an eligibility criterion. The bill would also refer to residents of the state and make other changes to that statement.
This measure would proclaim the month of September 2022 as Prostate Cancer Awareness Month.
This measure would urge the United States Congress to amend the United States Social Security Administration's index of earnings to ensure that a decline in aggregate wages due to COVID-19 does not result in decreased benefits.