Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which basic health care services are provided to qualified low-income persons. The Medi‑Cal program is partially governed and funded as part of the federal Medicaid Program. Under existing law, the Medi-Cal Hospital/Uninsured Care Demonstration Project Act, specified hospital reimbursement methodologies are applied in order to maximize the use of federal funds consistent with federal Medicaid law and stabilize the distribution of funding for hospitals that provide care to Medi-Cal beneficiaries and uninsured patients. This bill would require the department to make supplemental payments for certain services, as specified, to private hospitals, nondesignated public hospitals, and designated public hospitals, as defined, for subject federal fiscal years, which this bill would define to mean federal fiscal years that end after the latest effective date all federal approvals or waivers necessary for the implementation of these supplemental payments and begin before December 31, 2010. This bill would also require the department to pay direct grants in support of health care expenditures to designated public hospitals for each subject federal fiscal year, as specified. This bill would require the department to make enhanced payments to managed health care plans, as defined, and would require the state to make enhanced payments to mental health plans, as defined, for each subject federal fiscal year, as specified. This bill would require the managed health care plans and mental health plans that received enhanced payments to make supplemental payments to subject hospitals, as defined, pursuant to specified formulas. This bill would provide that the above-described payments shall be made only from the quality assurance fee that is due and payable on or before December 31, 2010, and related matching federal funds. This bill would require the Director of Health Care Services to submit any state plan amendment or waiver request that may be necessary to implement the above provisions. This bill would provide for the imposition, as a condition of participation in state-funded health insurance programs, other than the Medi-Cal program, of a quality assurance fee, as specified, on certain general acute care hospitals through, and including, December 31, 2010. This bill would require the department to seek federal approval, as defined, for assessment of the fee. This bill would provide that no hospital shall be required to pay the quality assurance fee to the department unless and until the state receives and maintains federal approval of the quality assurance fee for the above-described additional payments from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) . The bill would require hospitals, for calendar quarters prior to federal approval of the fee, and in the calendar quarter in which the department receives notice of federal approval of the fee, to certify to the best of its knowledge, on a form provided by the department, that the hospital is prepared to pay the fee. The bill would provide that within 30 days of when federal approval is received, the hospitals shall pay the amount they certified they were prepared to pay multiplied by certain applicable fee percentages, except that, in the event that the director has made modifications to the fee model to secure federal approval, the hospital shall pay the above-described amount adjusted to reflect the director's modifications. This bill would create the Hospital Quality Assurance Revenue Fund in the State Treasury and require the money collected from the quality assurance fee be deposited into the fund. This bill would provide that the moneys in the fund shall, upon appropriation by the Legislature, be available only for certain purposes, including providing the above-described supplemental payments and health care coverage for children. This bill would require the department to provide the Joint Legislative Budget Committee and the fiscal and appropriate policy committees of the Legislature a status update of the implementation of the above-described provisions, on January 1, 2010, and quarterly thereafter. This bill would provide that the above provisions shall not be implemented with respect to the 2009–10 and 2010–11 federal fiscal years until the earlier of April 30, 2010, or the date the federal government approves a federal waiver for a demonstration that will replace the Medi-Cal Hospital/Uninsured Care Demonstration Project Act. This bill would, under specified conditions, provide that the above provisions shall become inoperative if, among other things, CMS denies approval for, or does not approve before January 1, 2012, the implementation of the above provisions. This bill would, in the event certain conditions occur, retroactively invalidate the requirements for supplemental payments or other payments made pursuant to this bill. This bill would repeal the above provisions on January 1, 2013. This bill would specify that a quality assurance fee is to be imposed pursuant to a subsequent statute, effective January 1, 2011, and subject to federal approval in a manner necessary to obtain federal matching funds, that shall be due and payable to the department by each general acute care hospital at a specified rate for the purpose of making Medi-Cal payments to hospitals.
Sponsored bills
Existing law imposes various taxes, including a tax at a specified rate on the gross premiums of an insurer, as defined. Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which health care services are provided to qualified low-income recipients. One of the methods by which these services are provided is pursuant to contracts with various types of managed care plans. This bill would, until January 1, 2011, impose that tax on the total operating revenue, as specified, of a Medi-Cal managed care plan, as defined. The proceeds from the tax would be continuously appropriated (1) to the department for purposes of the Medi-Cal program in an amount equal to 38.41% of the proceeds from the tax and (2) to the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board for purposes of the Healthy Families Program in an amount equal to 61.59% of the proceeds from the tax. The bill would provide that the tax on Medi-Cal managed care plans would have no force or effect if any of specified conditions apply. Existing law requires every return required to be filed with the State Insurance Commissioner pursuant to provisions governing taxes on the gross premiums of insurers to be signed by the insurer or an executive officer of the insurer and to be made under oath or contain a written declaration that it is made under penalty of perjury. This bill would also require Medi-Cal managed care plans to file returns with the commissioner under oath or with a written declaration that is made under penalty of perjury. By expanding the crime of perjury, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Existing law creates the Healthy Families Program, administered by the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, to arrange for the provision of health care services to children less than 19 years of age who meet certain criteria, including having a limited gross household income. Existing law requires families with children participating in the program to pay specified family contribution amounts. This bill would, commencing November 1, 2009, increase the amounts to be paid for the family contributions. This bill would require the Healthy Families Program to provide prior notice to any applicant for a subscriber whose premium will increase as a result of the increases in the family contribution amounts and would require the program to provide the applicant with an opportunity to demonstrate that, based on reduced family income, the subscriber is subject to a lower premium pursuant to the above-described provisions. The California Children and Families Act of 1998, an initiative measure approved by the voters as Proposition 10 at the November 3, 1998, statewide general election, requires that the California Children and Families Program, established by the act, be funded by certain taxes imposed on the sale and distribution of cigarettes and tobacco products, that revenues be deposited into the California Children and Families Trust Fund, and that the fund be used for the implementation of comprehensive early childhood development and smoking prevention programs. Existing law provides that 20% of moneys allocated and appropriated from the trust fund shall be deposited, in accordance with a prescribed formula, in specified accounts, including the Unallocated Account, for expenditure by the California Children and Families Commission, also known as First 5 California, for various subjects relating to, and furthering the goals and purposes of, the act. Existing law prohibits amendment of this initiative measure by the Legislature unless the amendment is approved by the voters, or the amendment is accomplished by a vote of 23 of the membership of both houses of the Legislature and the amendment furthers the act and is consistent with its purposes. This bill would provide that any funds not needed in specified accounts may be transferred to the Unallocated Account upon approval of the commission. The bill would make a legislative finding and declaration that these changes further the goals and purposes of that act. This bill would require the Director of Finance to make the necessary budgetary adjustments to allow the expenditure of funds allocated by the commission pursuant to the above provisions. 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. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
This measure would recognize and commend the number and scope of existing "well adolescent" programs and initiatives that the State Department of Public Health, the State Department of Education, and the State Department of Health Care Services are charged with administering. This measure would also encourage all Californians to recognize and support the focus of the departments on improving California adolescent health through education and outreach efforts to prevent chronic diseases, promote improved treatment of chronic diseases, and ensure updated immunizations against preventable diseases.
This measure would urge the President and the Congress of the United States to act to establish a federally controlled Alzheimer's Silver Alert program to locate missing persons with dementia and establish a federal grant program to aid states in establishing local Silver Alert programs.
Existing law provides for the licensure of long-term health care facilities by the State Department of Public Health. Under existing law, the Long-Term Care, Health, Safety, and Security Act of 1973, the department may assess penalties for violation of prescribed state and federal requirements. Moneys collected as a result of the penalties imposed pursuant to these provisions are required to be deposited into either the State Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account or the Federal Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account, and used, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the protection of health or property of residents of long-term health care facilities, including reimbursing residents for personal funds lost and costs associated with informational meetings. Existing law establishes the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman in the California Department of Aging. Under existing law, the office is responsible for, among other things, investigating and resolving complaints and concerns communicated by or on behalf of patients, residents, or clients of long-term care facilities, as defined. Existing law authorizes the California Department of Aging to allocate all federal and state funds for local ombudsman programs according to a specified distribution schedule. This bill would appropriate $1.6 million from the Federal Health Facilities Citation Penalties Account to the California Department of Aging for use in funding local ombudsman programs pursuant to the aforementioned distribution schedule, before the end of the 2009–10 fiscal year. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law provides that when multiple offenses occur in multiple jurisdictions and all of the offenses involve the same defendant or defendants and the unauthorized use of the personal identifying information of one person, then jurisdiction for all offenses is proper in any one of the counties where an offense occurred. This bill would provide, in addition, that when multiple offenses occur in multiple jurisdictions and all of the offenses involve the same defendant or defendants and either the same personal identifying information of one person or the same scheme or substantially similar activity, then jurisdiction for all offenses, including associated offenses connected together in their commission to an underlying identity theft offense, is proper in any one of the counties where one of the offenses occurred. Existing law requires a court to consider specified facts when determining if all counts in a complaint alleging multiple offenses of unauthorized use of personal identifying information occurring in multiple counties should be joined in one county for prosecution. This bill would, in addition, require the court to consider whether or not the offenses involved substantially similar activity or the same scheme when making that determination.
Existing law allows taxpayers, until January 1, 2010, to contribute amounts in excess of their personal income tax liability for the support of the California Fund for Senior Citizens. Existing law repeals the contribution provisions for this fund either on the September 1 following the calendar year for which the Franchise Tax Board estimates that the minimum contribution amount will be less than a prescribed amount or on January 1, 2010, whichever occurs first. This bill would, under this latter limit, extend the operation of those contribution provisions until January 1, 2015.
This measure would urge the Congress and President of the United States to enact legislation that would provide for a 3-year extension of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006, including the existing formula-based funding for states with maturing names-based HIV reporting systems, from its current sunset on September 30, 2009, to September 30, 2012.
This measure would declare May 2009 to be "Senior Volunteer Month" to honor the contributions of California's senior volunteers.