Sen. Bill Monning

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. One method by which these services are provided is pursuant to contracts with various types of managed care health plans, including through a county organized health system. Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975 (Knox-Keene) , 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 the California Medical Assistance Commission with the authority to negotiate exclusive contracts with county organized health systems to provide health care services under the Medi-Cal program. Under existing law, the contracting counties are exempt from Knox-Keene for purposes of carrying out those contracts. This bill would repeal that exemption and delete related exemptions, deem a county contracting with the department under the provisions described above to be a health care service plan as of specified dates, and subject contracting counties to the act for purposes of carrying out those contracts, unless the act expressly provides otherwise. The bill would make conforming changes. Because a willful violation of Knox-Keene 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.

Existing law, the Contractors' State License Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of contractors, including home improvement contractors, by the Contractors' State License Board within the Department of Consumer Affairs. Existing law also provides for the registration and regulation of home improvement salespersons by the board. Existing law requires the board to appoint a registrar of contractors who is the executive officer and secretary of the board and is responsible for carrying out specified administrative duties. Under existing law, a home improvement salesperson is a person employed by a licensed home improvement contractor to solicit, sell, negotiate, or execute contracts for home improvements, for the sale, installation, or furnishing of home improvement goods or services, or of swimming pools, spas, or hot tubs. This bill would provide that such a salesperson is a person who is registered and engaged in the business of soliciting, selling, negotiating, or executing contracts for home improvements, for the sale, installation or furnishing of home improvement goods or services, or of swimming pools, spas, or hot tubs on behalf of a licensed home improvement contractor. The bill would require a home improvement salesperson to register with the board in order to engage in the business of, or act in the capacity of, a home improvement salesperson. Existing law makes it a crime for any person to engage in the occupation of home improvement salesperson for one or more home improvement contractors without a registration for each of the home improvement contractors by whom he or she is employed. Existing law makes it a crime for any person to engage in the occupation of salesperson of home improvement goods or services, as defined, without a registration. This bill would instead make it a crime for any person to engage in the occupation of home improvement salesperson for one or more home improvement contractors without having, at the time of the sales transaction, a current and valid registration. The bill would instead make it a crime for any person to engage in the occupation of salesperson of home improvement goods or services without having, at the time of the sales transaction, a current and valid registration. By changing the definitions of these crimes, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. Under existing law, home improvement salesperson registrations expire subject to board determination, as described. This bill would provide that these registrations expire 2 years from the last day of the month in which the registration was issued or 2 years from the date on which the renewed registration last expired. Under existing law, a home improvement contractor who employs a person to sell home improvement contracts while that person is not registered by the registrar as a home improvement salesperson is subject to disciplinary action. This bill would require a home improvement contractor to notify the registrar in writing about the employment of a registered home improvement salesperson. The bill would also require a home improvement contractor to notify the registrar when a registered home improvement salesperson ceases to be employed by the contractor. The bill would make a home improvement contractor who fails to report this information subject to disciplinary action by the registrar. Existing law authorizes the board to make rules and regulations as are reasonably necessary to carry out the law and requires the rules and regulations to be adopted in accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. This bill would authorize the board, by regulation, to implement a system to provide for the electronic transmission of contractor applications for licensure, home improvement salesperson applications for registration, and those aforementioned notices required to be made by a home improvement contractor, as specified. 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 California Health Facilities Financing Authority Act, establishes a program for the California Health Facilities Authority to award grants that do not exceed $1,500,000 to one or more projects designed to demonstrate specified new or enhanced cost-effective methods of delivering quality health care services to improve access to quality health care for vulnerable populations or communities, or both, that are effective at enhancing health outcomes and improving access to quality health care and preventive services. Existing law requires a recipient of that grant to adhere to all applicable laws relating to scope of practice, licensure, staffing, and building codes. Existing law authorizes the authority, if a demonstration project receiving a grant is successful at developing such a new method of delivering high-quality and cost-effective health care services, to implement a 2nd grant program, as specified, to replicate in additional California communities the model developed by that demonstration project. Existing law requires the authority to prepare and provide a report to the Legislature and the Governor on the outcomes of the demonstration grant program that includes, among other information, the total amount of grants issued and the amount of each grant issued. This bill would create the California Health Access Model Program Two Account within the California Health Facilities Financing Authority Fund for purposes of administering a 2nd competitive grant selection process, in accordance with existing grant provisions, to fund one or more projects designed to demonstrate specified new or enhanced cost-effective methods of delivering quality health care services to improve access to quality health care for vulnerable populations or communities, or both. The bill would authorize the authority to transfer moneys up to a total of $3,000,000 from the California Health Facilities Financing Authority Hospital Equipment Loan Program Fund to the account for the purposes of the bill if the authority decides to administer the 2nd competitive grant selection process, and would require that any moneys remaining in the account as of January 1, 2023, revert to the California Health Facilities Financing Authority Hospital Equipment Loan Program Fund. By expanding the purposes for which a continuously appropriated fund may be used, this bill would make an appropriation. The bill would also require the authority to prepare and provide a report to the Legislature and the Governor every 2 years, commencing January 1, 2017, on the 2 grant selection programs, that includes, among other information, the total amount of grants issued and the amount of each grant issued, as specified. This bill would also make the existing requirement for adherence to all applicable laws relating to scope of practice, licensure, staffing, and building to codes applicable to a recipient of a grant provided pursuant to the 2nd grant program described above. Existing law defines health facility, for purposes of the act, to include a multilevel facility that is an institutional arrangement where a residential facility for the elderly is operated as a part of, or in conjunction with, an intermediate care facility, a skilled nursing facility, or a general acute care hospital. Existing law defines elderly, for purposes of this provision, to mean a person 62 years of age or older. This bill would instead define elderly to mean a person 60 years of age or older. This bill would become operative only if AB 648 is enacted and takes effect on or before January 1, 2016.

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 an applicant or provider, as defined, to submit a complete application package for enrollment, continued enrollment, or enrollment at a new location or a change in location, and generally requires the application package for enrollment, the provider agreement, and all attachments or changes to either that are submitted by specified applicants or providers to be notarized. Existing law requires the department to collect an application fee for enrollment, including enrollment at a new location or a change in location. This bill would exempt from these notarization requirements any provider that chooses to enroll electronically. The bill would clarify that the department is also required to collect an application fee for continued enrollment. Existing law authorizes the department to implement a 180-day moratorium on the enrollment of providers in a specified provider of services category, as specified. Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to screen Medi-Cal providers and designate each provider or applicant as "limited," "moderate," or "high" categorical risk. Existing law requires the department to designate a provider or applicant as a "high" categorical risk if specified circumstances occur, including if the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services lifted a temporary moratorium within the previous 6 months for the particular provider type submitting the application, as specified. This bill would also require the department to designate a provider or applicant as a "high" categorical risk if the department lifted a temporary moratorium within the previous 6 months for the particular provider type submitting the application. This bill would also delete various obsolete provisions of law. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

This measure would urge the Supreme Court of the United States to uphold the federal constitutional principle of "one person, one vote" and not deny California's children and immigrants equal protection under the law.

This measure would recognize that every child who needs comprehensive health and early intervention services and supports in order to achieve his or her developmental potential should have those services easily accessible, sufficient, responsive, timely, and of high quality. The measure would further urge the Legislature to leverage existing efforts and statutes to ensure an accountable, results-oriented, and coordinated network of resources in order to provide multidisciplinary early identification and intervention services and supports to California infants and toddlers.

This measure would recognize the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The California Coastal Sanctuary Act of 1994 authorizes the State Lands Commission to enter into a lease for the extraction of oil or gas from state-owned tide and submerged lands in the California Coastal Sanctuary if the commission determines that the oil or gas deposits are being drained by means of producing wells upon adjacent federal lands and the lease is in the best interest of the state. This bill would enact the California Coastal Protection Act of 2015, which would delete this authorization. The bill would make related legislative findings and declarations.

Existing law prohibits the Department of Motor Vehicles from issuing a commercial driver's license to any person to operate a commercial motor vehicle unless the person has passed a written and driving test for the operation of a commercial motor vehicle that complies with the minimum standards established by the federal Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1986 and specified federal regulations, and has satisfied all other requirements of that act as well as any other requirements imposed by state law. This bill, commencing January 1, 2018, would also require a person to successfully complete a course of instruction from a commercial driver training institution or program offered by an employer with an approved course of instruction that has been certified by the department before he or she is issued a commercial driver's license, except as specified. The bill would require the course of instruction to include, at a minimum, standards necessary to ensure a driver is proficient in safely operating a commercial vehicle. This bill would also require a commercial driver's license applicant to successfully complete a written and driving test, as specified. Existing law, the California Private Postsecondary Education Act of 2009, provides for the regulation of private postsecondary educational institutions by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education in the Department of Consumer Affairs. The act exempts an institution from its provision if any of a list of specific criteria are met. This bill, commencing January 1, 2018, would remove the exemption from the provisions of the act for an institution that is certified by the Department of Motor Vehicles to offer a course of instruction to prepare students to obtain a commercial driver's license, thereby making the act applicable to the institution.