Healthcare and other CA Legislation 2014

Question 0

SB 204

Answer 0

SB 204, as amended, Corbett. Prescription drugs: labeling. The English language directions for use established by regulation of the board shall be provided in each instance in which a non-English translation of the directions for use is used pursuant to this section.

5/14: active

Question 1

SB 52

Answer 1

Provides that a committee that has paid for political advertisements and that has received cumulative contributions that meet or exceed the disclosure threshold, as defined, must establish and maintain a disclosure Internet Web site. The homepage … shall include a disclosure area that satisfies specified criteria.

Requires that these Internet Web sites include a list of the identifiable contributors who have made the 10 largest cumulative contributions to the committee and a hyperlink to another page on the disclosure Internet Web site that lists all of the committee’s identifiable contributors, as specified….

5/14: active

Question 2

SB 391

Answer 2

DeSaulnier - this bill would enact the California Homes and Jobs Act of 2013. The bill would make legislative findings and declarations relating to the need for establishing permanent, ongoing sources of funding dedicated to affordable housing development. The bill would impose a fee, except as provided, of $75 to be paid at the time of the recording of every real estate instrument, paper, or notice required or permitted by law to be recorded.

5/14: active

Question 3

AB 503

Answer 3

Charity Care: this bill would declare the necessity of establishing uniform standards for reporting the amount of charity care and community benefits a facility provides to ensure that private nonprofit hospitals and nonprofit multispecialty clinics actually meet the social obligations for which they receive favorable tax treatment, among other findings and declarations.
This bill would require a private nonprofit hospital and nonprofit multispecialty clinic, as defined, to provide community benefits to the public by allocating available community benefit moneys to charity health care, as defined, and community building activities, as specified. The bill would, by January 1, 2017?

Supported by CARA.

Question 4

SB 746

Answer 4

DIGEST: this bill establishes new data reporting requirements on health plans and health insurers sold in the large group market and establishes new specific data reporting requirements related to annual medical trend factors by service category, as well as claims data or deidentified patient-level data, as specified, for a health care service plan (health plan) or health insurer that exclusively contracts with no more than two medical groups in the state to provide or arrange for professional medical services for the enrollees of the plan (referring to Kaiser Permanente).
It was vetoed by Brown in 2013. The CHC website as of May 18, 2014 states support of this Bill.

Question 5

AB 880

Answer 5

COMMENTS: According to the author, the purpose of this bill is to extend the employer responsibility requirement in the ACA to employers with employees who enroll in Medi-Cal to discourage these employers from shifting the cost of providing health coverage for their employees onto the state. The author states that this bill closes a loophole in the employer penalty provisions of the ACA. Specifically, the ACA requires individuals, employers, and government to share responsibility for health coverage. Individuals must have health coverage or pay a penalty. Employers with an average of at least 50 full time employees must either provide affordable health coverage or pay a penalty for each employee who accesses subsidized coverage in the state Exchange. However, an employer whose employees become eligible for Medi-Cal because their wages and hours cause the family income to fall below the MAGI standard will be eligible for Medi-Cal with no cost to the employer. The author states that the penalty proposed in this bill is intended to help offset that cost of the public subsidy. The federal government provides subsidies for premiums and cost-sharing through state exchanges and allows states to expand their Medicaid programs with 100% federal funding for the first three years. The author points out that legislation pending in the First Extraordinary Session proposes to expand the Medi-Cal program to provide coverage to childless adults up to 138% of the federal poverty level (currently set at $15,415 annually for an individual), based on the
individual or family MAGI and will streamline eligibility and enrollment for anyone who is eligible under the MAGI standard, including families and children.
2/3/14: died on inactive file.

Question 6

SB 894

Answer 6

SB 894, as amended, Corbett. Residential care facilities for the elderly: revocation of license. This bill would require, if the Director of Social Services determines at any time during or following a temporary suspension or revocation of a license that there is a risk to the residents or clients of the facility from physical or mental abuse, abandonment, or any other substantial threat to health or safety, the department to take any necessary action to minimize trauma for the residents, including, but not limited to, arranging for the preparation of the residents’ records and medications for transfer and checking in on the status of each transferred resident within 24 hours of transfer.

Question 7

AB 975

Answer 7

Establishes a definition for what qualifies as charity care to mean the unreimbursed cost to a private nonprofit hospital or nonprofit multispecialty clinic of providing services to the uninsured, or underinsured, as well as providing funding or otherwise financially supporting any of the following:….
2/3/14–died on inactive file.

Question 7

SB 1005

Answer 7

Makes individuals who meet all of the eligibility requirements for full-scope Medi-Cal benefits under existing law, except for their immigration status, eligible for full-scope Medi- Cal benefits.

5/18/14: active bill status

Question 7

SB 895

Answer 7

SB 895, as amended, Corbett. Residential care facilities for the elderly: unannounced visits. This bill would instead require the department to perform these unannounced inspections at least once each year and would authorize the department to conduct additional unannounced inspections under specified circumstances.

Question 8

SB 1182

Answer 8

(Leno) Rate Review. This bill requires health insurance to disclose cost drivers for large group plans as well as for small group/individual plans. HMOs would be required o provide large groups purchasers with their utilization data upon request. It also subjects any rate increase that exceeds CPI to “rate review” by Department of Managed Health Care.

CARA supports.
5/18/14: active bill in committee process.

Question 10

SB 1014

Answer 10

A pharmacy may accept the return of home-generated pharmaceutical waste, as defined in Section 117670.1 of the Health and Safety Code, from a consumer, consistent with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. Sec. 301 et seq.) and the federal Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. Sec. 801 et seq.).

“Home-generated pharmaceutical waste” means a prescription or over-the-counter human or veterinary home-generated pharmaceutical, that is a waste, as defined in Section 25124, derived from a household, including, but not limited to, a multifamily residence or household.

5/18/14: active

Question 11

SB 1017

Answer 11

Severance taxes. Senate Bill 1017 enacts the Oil Severance Tax Law, which imposes a severance tax for the privilege of extracting oil or natural gas.

SB 1017 requires that all proceeds from the severance tax, less refunds and costs of ad- ministration, be deposited in the California Higher Education Fund. The bill defines many of its terms, and contains legislative findings and declarations supporting its pur- poses.

5/14: active

Question 12

AB 1558

Answer 12

transparency and centralized data collection

Question 13

SB 1269

Answer 13

SB 1269 - (Beall) Safety Standards for ER Observation Areas and Outpatient Surgery
The bill would improve safety standards for hospital outpatient surgery setting, and so-called “observation” units. Specifically, the bill would require observation services to be licensed by the Department of Public Health, limit a patient’s stay in observation to 24 hours, require patients to be notified that they are in observation (and not admitted as an inpatient), and require observation services to be staffed at the same nurse-to-patient ratio required in emergency rooms. Further, as more and more surgical procedures of higher complexity are performed on an outpatient basis, the bill would also require hospital outpatient surgical setting to be staffed at the same level of inpatient surgical settings.

CARA supports.
5/18/14: Active Bill - In Committee Process

Question 14

AB 2400

Answer 14

Allows providers to pick and choose wehich networks or products they want to participate in. A phsycian could decline to participate in a Covered California plan. May actually restrict access by allowing providers to opt-out of products such as Medi-Cal managed care or Covered California plans. This would take us in the wrong direction per Cindy Young.

Question 16

AB 2533

Answer 16

(Ammiano) Patient Bill of Rights. Would expand current balance billing protections to patients receiving any type of service from an out-of-network provider when that out-of-network services is sought because of any of the following: he patient is unable to obtain the service in a timely manner from an in-network provider; the out-of-network service is medically necessary but not provided by an in-network provider; the service provided by the out-of-network provider is unavailable from in-network providers or is materially different and more clinically beneficial than the service the enrollee would receive in-network.
Supported by CARA.