BILL ANALYSIS Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary Senator Tom Torlakson, Chairman 962 (Migden) Hearing Date: 5/14/07 Amended: 5/1/07 Consultant: John Miller Policy Vote: Health 6 - 3 _________________________________________________________________ ____ BILL SUMMARY: SB 962 requires the Department of Public Health to establish a state umbilical cord blood banking program that provides for the collection, processing and storage of umbilical cord blood stem cells to be used for transplant and research purposes. _________________________________________________________________ ____ Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 Fund Collection/storage $ 200 $ 1,000 $ 1,000 GF DHS administration $ 200 $ 600 $ 600 GF/Sp Fee revenue Undetermined Sp* *Umbilical Cord Blood Biomedical Resources Program Fund _________________________________________________________________ ____ STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to Suspense. This bill would require the Department of Public Health to create a system to collect, process and store umbilical cord blood stem cells to be used for transplantation and research. The bill would require the department to establish a repository for umbilical cord blood cells to ensure cord blood is collected and stored per the patient's wishes, establish a system to retrieve and transport umbilical blood donations, and establish a system for matching umbilical cord donors with recipients for therapeutic use. The bill requires the department to provide information on umbilical cord donation to pregnant women with information on prenatal testing, and authorizes the department to establish fees to be collected from researchers and health providers. It is the intent of the author to integrate the umbilical cord blood collection service within the existing structure of the prenatal testing system. SB 962 would establish a statewide system for the collection, storage, and distribution of cord blood to be financed as far as possible with revenue from research and medical services. Costs of such a program depend on the volume of donations and the market demand for cord blood products and data, both of which are difficult to predict. Federal efforts to establish similar cord blood centers and related legislation (AB 34, Portantino) indicate initial costs in a range of $2 to 3 million. The Committee anticipated that there would be higher start up costs and limited non-GF revenue in the first year, but that costs would diminish in the future and revenue increase. The Committee's estimate also presumed the department could contract for the infrastructure and distribution system. No estimate by the department was available at the time of this analysis.