BILL NUMBER: AB 1203	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Salas

                        FEBRUARY 23, 2007

   An act to add Section 1373.67 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to health care coverage.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1203, as introduced, Salas. Health care service plans: hospital
contract cancellation.
   Existing law, the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975,
the willful violation of which is a crime, provides for the
regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed
Health Care. Existing law requires health care service plans to
provide affected enrollees with written notice of certain information
prior to the termination date of its contract with a provider group
or general acute care hospital.
   This bill would require a general acute care hospital that cancels
its contract with a health care service plan as a result of its
acquisition by another person or entity to orally notify the plan,
within 3 days, of the number of enrollees who are patients of the
hospital. The bill would prohibit a hospital that violates this
requirement from charging the plan more than the contracted rate for
the care of those enrollees. The bill would provide that a violation
of these requirements is not a crime.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 1373.67 is added to the Health and Safety Code,
to read:
   1373.67.  (a) When a general acute care hospital terminates its
contract with a health care service plan as a result of its
acquisition or purchase by another person or entity, the hospital
shall orally notify the plan, within three days of the contract
termination, of the number of enrollees of the plan who are patients
of the hospital at that time.
   (b) A general acute care hospital that fails to comply with the
requirement of subdivision (a) shall not charge the health care
service plan more than the contracted rate for the care of an
enrollee of the plan who was, at the time of the contract
termination, and continues to be a patient of the hospital.
   (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a violation of
this section shall not be a crime.