Existing law vests in the State Department of Developmental Services jurisdiction over state hospitals referred to as developmental centers for the provision of residential care to individuals with developmental disabilities. Existing law requires the department to comply with procedural requirements when closing a developmental center, including submitting a detailed plan to the Legislature and holding at least one public hearing. Under existing law, the department allocates funds to private nonprofit entities known as regional centers, which are required to provide, or arrange for the provision of, services and supports for persons with developmental disabilities. This bill would require the Department of Finance, upon the closure of the Sonoma Developmental Center, Fairview Developmental Center, or the nonsecured portion of the Porterville Developmental Center, to deposit the net savings from the closure of each center, as defined, into the Lanterman Act Community-Based Services Fund, s newly created fund. The bill would make the moneys in the fund available to the department, upon appropriation, to be used to supplement existing purchase-of-service funds used by regional centers to purchase services and supports for persons with developmental disabilities.
Sponsored bills
Existing law authorizes a state agency to apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to sponsor a specialized license plate program, and requires the DMV to issue those license plates if the sponsoring state agency meets certain requirements. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to authorize specialized license plates for members of the California National Guard.
(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. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid provisions. Existing law requires the department to develop and implement a Medi-Cal inpatient hospital reimbursement payment methodology based on diagnosis-related groups, subject to federal approval, that reflects the costs and staffing levels associated with quality of care for patients in all general acute care hospitals, as specified. Existing law generally requires the diagnosis-related group-based payments to apply to all claims. This bill would require claims for payments pursuant to the inpatient hospital reimbursement methodology described above to be increased by 16% for the 2015–16 fiscal year, and would require, commencing July 1, 2016, and annually thereafter, the department to increase each diagnosis-related group payment claim amount based, at a minimum, on increases in the medical component of the California Consumer Price Index. Commencing with the 2015–16 fiscal year, and annually thereafter, the bill would require managed care rates for Medi-Cal managed care health plans to be increased by a proportionately equal amount for increased payments for hospital services. (2) Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments to be reduced by 1% or 5%, and provider payments for specified non-Medi-Cal programs to be reduced by 1%, for dates of service on and after March 1, 2009, and until June 1, 2011. Existing law requires, except as otherwise provided, Medi-Cal provider payments and payments for specified non-Medi-Cal programs to be reduced by 10% for dates of service on and after June 1, 2011. This bill would, instead, prohibit the application of those reductions for payments to providers for dates of service on or after June 1, 2011. The bill would also require payments for managed care health plans for dates of service following the effective date of the bill to be determined without application of some of those reductions. The bill would require the Director of Health Care Services to implement this provision to the maximum extent permitted by federal law and for the maximum time period for which the director obtains federal approval for federal financial participation for those payments. (3) Prior law required, beginning January 1, 2013, through and including December 31, 2014, that payments for primary care services provided by specified physicians be no less than 100% of the payment rate that applies to those services and physicians as established by the Medicare program, for both fee-for-service and managed care plans. This bill, commencing January 1, 2016, would require payments for specified medical care services to not be less than 100% of the payment rate that applies to those services as established by the Medicare program for services rendered by fee-for-service providers, and would require rates paid to Medi-Cal managed care plans to be actuarially equivalent to payment rates established by the Medicare program. The bill, commencing January 1, 2016, would require rates paid to Denti-Cal providers for dental services provided to adults and children to be increased by the equivalent percentage as the percentage increase required for other fee-for-service Medi-Cal providers. The bill would require those provisions to be implemented only to the extent permitted by federal law and that federal financial participation is available. The bill would authorize the department to implement those provisions through provider bulletins without taking regulatory action until regulations are adopted, and would require the department to adopt those regulations by July 1, 2018. The bill would require, commencing July 1, 2016, the department to provide a status report to the Legislature on a semiannual basis until regulations have been adopted. (4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law, as amended by Proposition 83, the Sexual Predator Punishment and Control Act (Jessica's Law) , approved by the voters at the November 7, 2006, statewide general election, provides that a defendant shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for 25 years to life if convicted of certain crimes, including rape, sexual penetration, sodomy, oral copulation, continuous sexual abuse of a child, or rape, spousal rape, or sexual penetration in concert, if certain circumstances were present, including, among other things, if the defendant has been previously convicted of a specified offense. Proposition 83 provides that the Legislature may amend the provisions of the act to expand the scope of their application or increase the punishment or penalties by a statute passed by a majority vote of each house. This bill would specify that the prison term of 25 years to life applies if the defendant has been convicted of more than one specified offense on charges brought and tried separately, irrespective of the order in which the offenses were committed or the convictions obtained.
The Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 provides that a civil penalty for a violation of the Labor Code may be recovered through a civil action brought by an aggrieved employee, as specified. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to that provision.
This measure would designate a portion of State Highway Route 371 in the County of Riverside as the Special Deputy Frank Hamilton Memorial Highway. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.
The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act requires the State Department of Developmental Services to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities. Under existing law, the regional centers purchase needed services for individuals with developmental disabilities through approved service providers or arrange for those services through other publicly funded agencies. This bill would require the department to submit a plan to the Legislature by August 1, 2016, to ensure the sustainability, quality, and transparency of community-based services for individuals with developmental disabilities. The bill would require the department to regularly consult with stakeholders in developing the plan and would require the plan to address specified topics, including, among others, recommendations for a comprehensive approach to funding regional center operations in a sustainable and transparent manner that enables regional centers to deliver high-quality services to consumers. Existing law requires that contracts or agreements between regional centers and service providers in which the rates between the regional center and the service provider are determined through negotiations to ensure that not more than 15% of regional center funds be spent on administrative costs, as described. This bill would instead provide that the percentage of the funds that may be spent on administrative costs varies depending on the total value, annually, of the payments received by a service provider from all regional centers. Existing law establishes specified rates to be paid to certain service providers and the rates to be paid for certain developmental services. Existing law requires that rates to be paid to other developmental service providers either be set by the department or negotiated between the regional center and the service provider. Existing law prohibits certain provider rate increases, but authorizes increases to those rates as necessary to adjust employee wages to meet the state minimum wage law. This bill would increase the rates established by existing law, as specified, and would require an increase to the rates set by the department and the rates negotiated between regional centers and service providers, as specified. The bill would also require the department, when setting rates for community care facilities serving people with developmental disabilities, to ensure that the rates permit the viability of those facilities by establishing different rates for each facility size, as determined by the number of beds available, that reflect reasonable differences in the cost structure of facilities with differing numbers of beds. The bill would require the department to adopt emergency regulations implementing that provision by July 1, 2016. Existing law requires each regional center to submit, on or before August 1 of each year, to the department and the State Council on Developmental Disabilities a program budget plan for the subsequent budget year. Existing law provides that, to the extent feasible, all funds appropriated for developmental disabilities programs be allocated to those programs by August 1 of each year and designates the department as the agency responsible for the processing, audit, and payment of funds made available to regional centers. This bill would require the department to increase the funding paid to a regional center for the regional center's operating budget, beginning July 1, 2015, by 10% above the amount the regional center otherwise would have received under the department's core staffing formula, and, beginning July 1, 2016, by 10% above the amount the regional center otherwise would have received under the department's core staffing formula, plus a percentage equal to the percentage of any increase in the California Consumer Price Index since July 1, 2015. The bill would also require the department to increase the funding provided to a regional center to enable the regional center and the regional center's purchase-of-service vendors to fund certain costs related to minimum wage requirements.
Existing law provides that a law enforcement official has discretion to cooperate with federal immigration officials by detaining an individual on the basis of an immigration hold after that individual becomes eligible for release from custody only if the continued detention of the individual on the basis of the immigration hold would not violate any federal, state, or local law, or any local policy, and only under other specified circumstances. This bill would prohibit a local law enforcement agency from seeking custody of a previously convicted felon who is being detained or incarcerated by another law enforcement agency if the felon is scheduled for deportation or transfer to federal authorities for deportation proceedings unless there is an outstanding felony warrant, and the agency has confirmed that the prosecutorial authority with jurisdiction to prosecute the felony has a current intent to prosecute that felony. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Existing law requires a mandated reporter, as defined, to report known or suspected child abuse or neglect to a police department or sheriff's department, not including a school district police or security department, a county probation department, if designated by the county to receive mandated reports, or the county welfare department. Existing law requires those agencies, except for a police department or sheriff's department, to forward to the Department of Justice, as specified, a written report of a case of child abuse or severe neglect that the agency investigates and determines is substantiated. This bill would additionally authorize a mandated reporter to make those reports to a school district police department. This bill would except a school district police department from the requirement to forward a substantiated report to the Department of Justice. By imposing additional duties on a school district, this bill would create 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, 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 these statutory provisions.