AB 175

Bill Subjects

Abstract

Existing law requires the State Department of Health Care Services to maintain a program for seasonal agricultural and migratory workers and their families that includes technical and financial assistance to local agencies concerned with the health of seasonal agricultural and migratory workers and their families in coordination with similar programs of the federal government, other states, and voluntary agencies, and to grant funds to eligible private, nonprofit, community-based primary care clinics for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a health services program for seasonal agricultural and migratory workers and their families. Existing federal law, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) , enacts various health care coverage market reforms that take effect January 1, 2014. This bill would establish the Uncovered Worker Health Trust Fund for the purpose of providing comprehensive primary health care services to workers ineligible for health care coverage under federal and state programs, including the PPACA. This bill would authorize voluntary contributions to be deposited into the trust. This bill would require that trust moneys, as specified, be distributed by the Primary, Rural, and Indian Health Division of the department through the authority of the Rural Health Clinic Program. Because the bill would create a continuously appropriated fund, it would make an appropriation. The bill would also require the department to provide employers contributing to the trust with a list of nonprofit community health centers, as defined, accessible to uncovered workers. This bill would require the department, on or before March 1, 2015, to prepare and make available an application form, as specified, for nonprofit community health centers to use to apply for moneys from the trust. The bill would require a nonprofit community health center applying for trust moneys to submit the application to the department. The bill would also require the department to distribute trust moneys according to specified criteria, and would authorize nonprofit community health centers to utilize mobile medical units and provide transportation to uncovered workers who reside or are employed in geographical areas that make access to clinic sites difficult. This bill would require that the costs to the department of administering the trust be provided from the trust, and would prohibit administrative costs from exceeding 10% of the total trust moneys.