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 provides that federally qualified health center (FQHC) services and rural health clinic (RHC) services, as defined, are covered benefits under the Medi-Cal program, to be reimbursed, in accordance with Medicare reasonable cost principles, and to the extent that federal financial participation is obtained, to providers on a per-visit basis that is unique to each facility. Existing law prescribes the reimbursement rate methodology for establishing and adjusting the per-visit rate. Under existing law, if an FQHC or RHC is partially reimbursed by a 3rd-party payer, such as a managed care entity, the department is required to reimburse the FQHC or RHC for the difference between its per-visit rate programs on a contract-by-contract basis. Existing law authorizes an FQHC or RHC to apply for an adjustment to its rate based on a change in the scope of service that it provides within 150 days following the beginning of the FQHC's or RHC's fiscal year. Existing law provides that the department's implementation of FQHC and RHC services is subject to federal approval and the availability of federal financial participation. This bill would require the methodology of the adjusted per-visit rate to exclude, among other things, a provider productivity standard. The bill would authorize an FQHC or RHC to apply for a rate adjustment for the adoption, implementation, or upgrade of a certified electronic health record system as a change in the scope of service. The bill would clarify specified terms, including the meaning of "scope of "service," would expand the meaning of "visit" to include FQHC and RHC services rendered outside of the facility location, and would modify how the department reimburses an FQHC or RHC that is partially reimbursed by a 3rd-party payer. The bill would require a health care provider who contracts with an FQHC or RHC to provide services outside of the facility on behalf of the facility, and for which the facility bills for those services, to comply with specified requirements, including actively serving patients in the same county as, or a county adjacent to, the physical location of the billing FQHC or RHC. The bill would repeal the provisions authorizing an FQHC or RHC to apply for an adjustment to its rate based on a change in the scope of service that it provides within 150 days following the beginning of the FQHC's or RHC's fiscal year, and would instead extend the time frame for an FQHC or RHC to file a scope of service rate change to any time during the fiscal year. The bill would require the department to ensure that department staff conducting audits related to FQHC and RHC services receive appropriate training on federal and state laws governing those facilities, and would make various conforming and technical changes.
Sponsored bills
Existing law requires that cartridges for electronic cigarettes and solutions for filling or refilling an electronic cigarette be in child-resistant packaging, as defined. This bill would prohibit an electronic smoking device manufacturer, as defined, from advertising or promoting the electronic smoking device, as defined, in a manner that is attractive to persons under 21 years of age, as specified, or is intended to encourage persons under 21 years of age to use the device. This bill would authorize the State Department of Public Health to assess specified civil penalties against an electronic smoking device manufacturer for each violation.
Under existing law, every manufacturer making an express warranty with respect to an electronic or appliance product, including, among others, televisions, radios, audio or video recording equipment, major home appliances, antennas, and rotators, with a wholesale price to the retailer of not less than $50 nor more than $99.99 is required to make available to service and repair facilities sufficient service literature and functional parts to effect the repair of the product for at least 3 years after the date a product model or type was manufactured, regardless of whether the 3-year period exceeds the warranty period for the product. Existing law also requires every manufacturer making an express warranty with respect to an electronic or appliance product, as described above, with a wholesale price to the retailer of $100 or more, to make available to service and repair facilities sufficient service literature and functional parts to effect the repair of the product for at least 7 years after the date a product model or type was manufactured, regardless of whether the 7-year period exceeds the warranty period for the product. This bill would instead require the manufacturer, in the above-described circumstances and timeframes, to make available sufficient service literature, at no charge, and functional parts, on fair and reasonable terms, as defined, to owners of the equipment or products, service and repair facilities, and service dealers. The bill would also expand the category of products to which these provisions apply to include certain accessories used in connection with an antenna or rotator installation or repair, computer systems, video games, and direct satellite signal receiving equipment. The bill would specify that its provisions are not to be construed to require a manufacturer to divulge a trade secret, as defined.
(1) Existing law, the California Beverage Container Recycling and Litter Reduction Act, requires the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery to annually designate convenience zones and requires that at least one certified recycling center that meets certain requirements be located within every convenience zone. Existing law authorizes the department to grant a convenience zone an exemption from certain redemption requirements, including certain dealer and recycling center redemption requirements, based on certain factors. Existing law limits the total number of exemptions that may be granted to 35% of the total number of convenience zones identified as having one or more of those factors applicable. This bill would increase the total number of exemptions that may be granted to 50% of the number identified as eligible. The bill would require the department to review exemptions every 5 years to determine if each exemption still meets the prescribed exemption criteria. (2) The act requires dealers within a convenience zone where no recycling location has been established, or within a convenience zone that is unserved for 60 days and not exempt from convenience zone requirements, to submit an affidavit to the department stating that the dealer has met specified standards for redemption, including, among others, that the dealer is redeeming all empty beverage container types at all open cash registers or at one designated location on the dealer's premises, during all hours that the dealer is open for business. If the dealer does not submit that affidavit, existing law requires the dealer to pay $100 per day to the department, for deposit in the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund, a continuously appropriated fund described in (3) , until a recycling location is established or until the dealer meets the standards for redemption specified in the affidavit provision. This bill would revise these convenience zone redemption duties and exempt from those duties dealers with gross annual sales of less than $2,000,000 and dealers that are not supermarkets and that have less than 5,000 square feet of interior retail space. The bill, until January 1, 2022, would also exempt certain other dealers from these requirements. (3) The act establishes the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund and, except for administrative costs, continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the department for specified purposes, including the amount necessary to pay handling fees to certain types of recyclers to provide an incentive for the redemption of empty beverage containers in convenience zones. This bill would require the department to offer a handling fee payment from the fund to certain certified recyclers within unserved convenience zones. The bill would make an appropriation by changing the terms and conditions under which the department is authorized to make payments from a continuously appropriated fund. The bill, until July 1, 2022, would require the handling fee to be set at the rate in effect on July 1, 2015. The bill would authorize the department, until July 1, 2022, to annually expend $3,000,000 from the fund for specified supplemental handling fee payments to low-volume recycling centers. By authorizing the expenditure of a continuously appropriated fund for new purposes, this bill would make an appropriation. The bill would require the department to develop and submit to the Legislature recommended revisions to the handling fee provisions, as specified. (4) The act also continuously appropriates from the California Beverage Container Recycling Fund $10,500,000 annually for payments to cities and counties for beverage container recycling and litter cleanup activities. The act authorizes the department to withhold those payments to any city, county, or city and county that has restricted or prohibited the siting of a supermarket site, as provided. This bill would require the department, on or before July 1, 2020, to convene a public hearing, as specified, for purposes of discussing and receiving public testimony on the development of guidelines for evaluating the circumstances that might prompt the department to withhold beverage container recycling and litter cleanup activities payments to any city, county, or city and county that has restricted or prohibited the siting of a supermarket site. (5) The act requires the department to pay a market development payment to a reclaimer, as defined, for empty plastic beverage containers that have been collected for recycling in the state, and that the reclaimer washes and processes into flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form that is then usable as input for the manufacture of new plastic products, as defined, by product manufacturers in the state. The act also requires the department to pay a market development payment to a product manufacturer, as defined, for plastic flake, pellet, sheet, or any other form of plastic purchased from a reclaimer and used by that product manufacturer to manufacture a plastic product in the state. The act makes these provisions inoperative on July 1, 2022. This bill would delay the inoperative date of these provisions from July 1, 2022, to July 1, 2023. The act authorizes the department, for the 2019–20 fiscal year to the 2021–22 fiscal year, inclusive, to expend up to $10,000,000 each fiscal year from the fund for market development payments to reclaimers and product manufacturers. This bill would additionally authorize the department to expend up to $10,000,000 from the fund for those purposes for the 2022–23 fiscal year, thereby making an appropriation. (6) Under the act, the department is required to calculate a processing fee for each beverage container with a specified scrap value, which is required to be paid by beverage manufacturers for each beverage container sold or transferred to a distributor or dealer. The department is required to calculate the processing fee in a specified manner, so that the processing fee generally equals 65% of the processing payment that the department is required to pay to processors if the scrap value of the container having a refund value pursuant to the act is less than the cost of recycling. The department is required to determine the statewide weighted average cost to recycle each beverage container type by conducting a survey, as specified. The department is required to establish a processing fee account in the continuously appropriated California Beverage Container Recycling Fund for each material type and to deposit processing fees and other amounts in the applicable account. This bill would, for purposes of calculating processing payments, require the department, until January 1, 2022, to use the actual cost of recycling that was in effect on December 30, 2015, adjusted as specified. The bill would make an appropriation by changing the terms and conditions under which the department is authorized to make payments from a continuously appropriated fund. The bill would provide that the processing fees established by the department between the effective date of the bill and December 31, 2019, inclusive, shall not be higher than they would be absent these new provisions. The bill would require the department to suspend usage of surveys and calculations of recycling costs until at least January 1, 2021, and would authorize the department to redirect any contract funds for cost surveys and calculations to provide for a specified assessment and to utilize any contract funds available for the development of amendments to be recommended to the Legislature regarding specified provisions of the act. (7) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a comprehensive, long-term general plan that includes various mandatory elements, including a housing element. That law requires that the housing element, among other things, sets forth a schedule of actions during the planning period that the local government is undertaking or intends to undertake to implement the policies and achieve the goals of the housing element, as provided. Existing law authorizes the Department of Housing and Community Development to allow a city or county to substitute the provision of units for up to 25% of the community's obligation to identify adequate sites for any income category in its housing element pursuant to this schedule of actions if the community includes in its housing element a program committing the local government to provide units in that income category within the city or county that will be made available through the provision of committed assistance to low- and very low income households at affordable housing costs or affordable rents, as defined. This bill would additionally authorize the department to allow a city or county to substitute the provision of units for up to 25% of the community's obligation to identify adequate sites for any income category under the above-described schedule of actions if the governing body of the city or county has adopted both (1) an ordinance that implements requirements under state law, as well as any applicable requirements of the city or county, relating to accessory dwelling units and meets certain requirements and (2) an ordinance establishing a permitting process and appropriate standards to regulate short-term rentals of single-family dwellings in order to accomplish specified objectives. The bill would also make various nonsubstantive changes.
The California Public Records Act requires state and local agencies to make public records available for inspection by the public, subject to specified criteria and with specified exceptions. Existing law exempts from disclosure any investigatory or security file compiled by any other state or local police agency, or any investigatory or security files compiled by any other state or local agency for correctional, law enforcement, or licensing purposes. Existing law requires, however, that state and local law enforcement agencies make public specified information, including names of victims, relating to the circumstances surrounding all complaints or requests for assistance, among other things, except to the extent that disclosure of a particular item of information would endanger the safety of a person involved in the investigation. Existing law allows victims of specified crimes to request that their names be withheld from any public records request, and upon that request prohibits law enforcement agencies from disclosing those names except under specified circumstances. Existing law additionally prohibits law enforcement agencies from disclosing the addresses of victims of specified crimes. This bill would require law enforcement to inform a victim or witness of certain gang-related offenses that their name will be disclosed unless a law enforcement agency determines disclosure would endanger their safety, and that they may provide evidence to the law enforcement agency that disclosure of the person's name would endanger the person's safety, and would authorize a law enforcement agency to consider that when making the determination. By imposing new duties on law enforcement agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. 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. 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, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.
Existing law establishes a system of public elementary and secondary education in this state. Under this system, local educational agencies throughout the state provide instruction to pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. This bill would establish the California Financial Literacy Initiative as a program for improving financial literacy by offering instructional materials for teachers and parents to provide high-quality financial literacy education for pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive. The bill would provide that the initiative would be under the administration of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. The bill would authorize the Superintendent to convene a Financial Literacy Advisory Committee to review materials that could be provided on the internet in a centralized location for access by local educational agencies, as specified. The bill would require online curricula included in an online library, or otherwise promoted or made available, through this initiative to conform to specified provisions protecting pupil privacy and protecting pupils against marketing directed at them through instructional materials.
Existing law requires the Department of Transportation to adopt rules and regulations that allow the placement near exits on freeways in rural areas of information signs identifying specific roadside businesses, including a business offering electric vehicle charging facilities. This bill would require the Department of Transportation to study and, by December 31, 2020, make recommendations to the Legislature on options to incentivize owners and operators of gas stations or service stations to build onsite electric vehicle charging stations, including tax incentives and infrastructure incentives.
Existing law creates the Department of Transportation within the Transportation Agency and creates the Independent Office of Audits and Investigations within the department, with specified powers and duties. Existing law requires the Governor to appoint the director of the office for a 6-year term, subject to confirmation by the Senate, and provides that the director, known as the Inspector General, may not be removed from office during the term except for good cause. Existing law specifies the duties and responsibilities of the Inspector General with respect to the department and local agencies receiving state and federal transportation funds through the department, and requires an annual report to the Legislature and Governor. This bill would eliminate the Independent Office of Audits and Investigations and would instead create the Independent Office of the Transportation Inspector General in state government, as an independent office that would not be a subdivision of any other government entity, to ensure that specified state agencies and all external entities that receive state and federal transportation funds are operating efficiently, effectively, and in compliance with federal and state laws. The bill would require the Governor to appoint the Transportation Inspector General for a 4-year term, subject to confirmation by the Senate, and would prohibit the Transportation Inspector General from being removed from office during the term except for good cause. The bill would specify the duties and responsibilities of the Transportation Inspector General and set the salary of the Transportation Inspector General. The bill would require the Transportation Inspector General to submit an annual report to the Governor, the Legislature, and the California Transportation Commission.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. The California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program requires the commission to establish a renewables portfolio standard requiring all retail sellers, defined as including electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources, as defined, so that the total kilowatthours of those products sold to their retail end-use customers achieves 25% of retail sales by December 31, 2016, 33% by December 31, 2020, 44% by December 31, 2024, 52% by December 31, 2027, and 60% by December 31, 2030. The program additionally requires each local publicly owned electric utility, as defined, to procure a minimum quantity of electricity products from eligible renewable energy resources to achieve the procurement requirements established by the program. The 100 Percent Clean Energy Act of 2018 established as a policy of the state that eligible renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources supply 100% of retail sales of electricity to California end-use customers and 100% of electricity procured to serve all state agencies by December 31, 2045. This bill would require the commission to determine appropriate targets for the procurement of offshore wind generation on behalf of retail end-use customers of retail sellers in California in order to meet the goals that eligible renewable energy resources supply 60% of retail sales of electricity to California end-use customers by December 31, 2030, and that eligible renewable energy resources and zero-carbon resources supply 100% of retail sales of electricity to California end-use customers and 100% of electricity procured to serve all state agencies by December 31, 2045. The bill would request the Independent System Operator to utilize its transmission planning process to plan for new transmission additions to the transmission grid under its operational control that will accommodate offshore wind generation and to utilize or repurpose existing transmission infrastructure that was built to serve fossil fuel or nuclear generation that has been, or will be, retired. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because a violation of an order or decision of the commission implementing the bill's requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. 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.