AB 177

Bill Subjects

Abstract

(1) The California Hospice Licensure Act of 1990 requires a person, political subdivision of the state, or other governmental agency to obtain a license from the State Department of Public Health to provide hospice services to an individual who is experiencing the last phase of life due to a terminal disease, as defined, and their family, except as provided. Existing law requires the department, by January 1, 2025, to adopt emergency regulations to implement the recommendations in a specified report of the California State Auditor. Existing law requires the department to maintain the general moratorium on new hospice agency licenses until the department adopts the regulations. Existing law requires the moratorium to end the date the emergency regulations are adopted. This bill would extend the deadline by which the department is required to adopt those regulations to January 1, 2026, and would require the moratorium to end January 1, 2027, or one year after the date the emergency regulations are adopted. (2) Existing law requires a disability insurance policy issued, amended, renewed, or delivered on or after January 1, 2024, to provide coverage for medically necessary treatment of mental health and substance use disorders and cover services identified in a fee-for-service reimbursement schedule published by the State Department of Health Care Services when those services are delivered at schoolsites, regardless of the network status of the local educational agency, institution of higher education, or health care provider. Existing law requires the Insurance Commissioner to issue guidance to disability insurers regarding compliance with these provisions. Existing law, as part of the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, requires the State Department of Health Care Services to develop and maintain a school-linked statewide provider network of schoolsite behavior health counselors and requires a health care service plan, insurer, or Medi-Cal managed care plan that covers necessary schoolsite services, as specified, to comply with all administrative requirements to cover and reimburse the services set forth by the network administrator. This bill would require the commissioner to additionally issue guidance to disability insurers regarding compliance with provisions regarding administrative requirements to cover and reimburse services under the school-linked statewide behavioral health provider network. (3) 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 provides that Medi-Cal funding be made available to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital, to serve the population of South Los Angeles, as specified. This bill would, for dates of service commencing no later than January 1, 2026, and subject to an appropriation by the Legislature, require the department to establish a Medi-Cal managed care directed payment reimbursement methodology in accordance with federal regulations. The bill would specify the minimum requirements for the reimbursement methodology. The bill would authorize the department to adjust or modify the directed payment reimbursement methodology to meet applicable federal requirements. The bill would specify, for any dates of service for which these provisions are implemented, that a Medi-Cal managed care plan is not required to make payments pursuant to existing specified provisions. The bill would authorize the department to implement these provisions by means of all-county letters, plan letters, or other similar instructions. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the County of Los Angeles. (4) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of certain health facilities, including general acute care hospitals, by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law requires health facilities to annually report certain information to the state, including the current inventory of beds and services. This bill, upon appropriation or availability of funds, would authorize the State Department of Public Health, in collaboration with the State Department of Health Care Services, to contract, or develop and administer, a capacity data solution, as specified. The bill would require specified entities, as defined, to submit data to the capacity data solution, which would both collect data and enable searches to identify available behavioral health beds. The bill would authorize the State Department of Health Care Services to impose a plan of correction or assess civil money penalties against an entity licensed or certified by the State Department of Health Care Services that fails to submit data accurately, timely, or as required by the State Department of Public Health. (5) Existing law authorizes a state hospital under the jurisdiction of the State Department of State Hospitals to develop a list of items that are deemed contraband and prohibited on hospital grounds and control and eliminate the contraband on hospital grounds. This bill would authorize the department to adopt emergency regulations related to the management, inspection, and disposition of contraband identified by the department pursuant to these provisions until June 30, 2026. (6) The bill would also reappropriate specified funds from the Budget Act of 2021 related to the CalHOPE Student Support Program. (7) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as a bill providing for appropriations related to the Budget Bill.