BILL NUMBER: AB 1153 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 21, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 13, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Beall
FEBRUARY 27, 2009
An act to add Section 76000.10 to the Government Code, relating to
emergency services, and making an appropriation therefor.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1153, as amended, Beall. Emergency air medical transportation
providers: penalty levy: reimbursement augmentation.
Existing law requires an additional county penalty of $7 for every
$10, or part of $10, to be levied upon every fine, penalty, or
forfeiture imposed and collected by the courts for all criminal
offenses, for deposit into specified county funds relating to the
construction of courthouses, criminal justice facilities, and
forensic laboratories, and the support of emergency medical services.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is
administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under
which health care services, including medical transportation
services, are provided to qualified low-income persons. The Medi-Cal
program is partially governed and funded under federal Medicaid
provisions.
This bill, which is to be known as the Emergency Air Medical
Transportation Act, would levy an additional penalty of $3 upon every
fine, penalty, or forfeiture imposed and collected by the courts for
all offenses involving a vehicle violation, except certain parking
offenses, in each county. This bill would require each county board
of supervisors to establish in the county treasury an emergency air
medical transportation act fund into which the penalty collected
pursuant to this bill would be deposited. This bill would require, on
the last day of each calendar quarter of the year, the county
treasurer to transfer moneys in the county's emergency air medical
transportation act fund to the Controller for credit to the Emergency
Air Medical Transportation Act Fund, which is created by the bill.
This fund would be continuously appropriated to the department and be
administered by the department solely for the purposes of augmenting
Medi-Cal reimbursement paid to emergency air medical transportation
services providers.
The bill would require the department to use the moneys in the
Emergency Air Medical Transportation Act Fund and federal matching
funds to increase the Medi-Cal reimbursement or supplemental payments
for emergency air medical transportation services in an amount not
to exceed normal and customary charges charged by the emergency air
ambulance transportation services provider.
By requiring counties to create emergency air medical
transportation act funds and then deposit the levy imposed by this
bill into those funds, this bill would create a state-mandated local
program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates
determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these
statutory provisions.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: yes. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all
of the following:
(a) Air ambulance services provide life saving emergency
transportation of the most critical patients from automobile accident
scenes directly to trauma centers. The vast majority of helicopter
scene responses are motor vehicle related.
(b) Many of these transports originate in rural areas where ground
transportation is prolonged. In some instances, however, air
transportation may be needed in urban areas where traffic congestion
inhibits rapid transportation.
(c) Air ambulance services providers transport all emergency
patients without knowing if the patient has any form of medical
insurance or ability to pay for the service.
(d) Many emergency room patients transported by air ambulances
have no insurance and no ability to pay for the service, but these
patients are given the same high level of care as those with medical
insurance.
(e) Unlike the hospitals where air ambulance services providers
deliver patients, air ambulance services providers are not eligible
to apply for additional federal funding for providing services to
high numbers of indigent patients pursuant to California's
disproportionate share hospital (DSH) program under the Medi-Cal
program.
(f) Unlike the hospitals and emergency physicians who treat the
patients after they are delivered by helicopter, air ambulance
services providers do not receive payment from the county Maddy
Emergency Medical Services Fund when they provide treatment to an
indigent patient.
(g) Emergency air ambulance services providers provide coverage to
multiple counties within a 100-mile radius of their bases, and, as a
result, often their transports originate in a county other than
where they are based, which makes it virtually impossible for them to
be funded by local tax support except in the largest of counties.
(h) The Medi-Cal program reimburses air ambulance services
providers far below what it costs the providers to provide emergency
air transportation and pays nothing if the patient is indigent and
not eligible for Medi-Cal. The Medi-Cal reimbursement rates for air
ambulances have not increased in over 15 years.
(i) Currently fines and penalties on traffic violations total
between one hundred and eight dollars ($108) and nineteen-thousand
dollars ($19,000), inclusive. Some of the fine and penalty money is
already collected by county courts and transferred to the state.
(j) A small additional penalty of three dollars ($3) per traffic
violation would result in a very small percentage increase on each
penalty on traffic violations, but the money collected from the
penalty would go to support air ambulance services, which are the
most critical services that support patients who are injured as a
result of a major collision.
(k) Air ambulance services play a key role in the statewide
emergency medical services system, including disaster response and
homeland security, so it is important for California to support these
vital services.
SECTION 1. SEC. 2. Section 76000.10
is added to the Government Code, to read:
76000.10. (a) This section shall be known, and may be cited, as
the Emergency Air Medical Transportation Act.
(b) For the purpose of implementing this section, there shall be
levied an additional penalty of three dollars ($3) in each county
that shall be collected together with, and in the same manner as, the
amounts established by Section 1464 of the Penal Code, upon every
fine, penalty, or forfeiture imposed and collected by the courts for
all offenses involving a violation of the Vehicle Code or a local
ordinance adopted pursuant to the Vehicle Code, except parking
offenses subject to Article 3 (commencing with Section 40200) of
Chapter 1 of Division 17 of the Vehicle Code. These moneys shall be
taken from fines and forfeitures deposited with the county treasurer
prior to any division pursuant to Section 1463 of the Penal Code. The
county board of supervisors shall establish in the county treasury
an emergency air medical transportation act fund into which shall be
deposited the moneys collected pursuant to this section.
(c) (1) Moneys in each county's fund, including interest and
dividends earned thereon, shall be held by the county treasurer
separate from funds subject to transfer or division pursuant to
Section 1463 of the Penal Code.
(2) On the last day of each calendar quarter of the year, the
county treasurer shall transfer moneys in the county's emergency air
medical transportation act fund to the Controller for credit to the
Emergency Air Medical Transportation Act Fund, which is hereby
established in the State Treasury. Notwithstanding Section 16305.7,
the Emergency Air Medical Transportation Act Fund shall include
interest and dividends earned on money in the fund.
(3) The Emergency Air Medical Transportation Act Fund shall be
administered by the State Department of Health Care Services.
Notwithstanding Section 13340, moneys in the Emergency Air Medical
Transportation Act Fund are continuously appropriated, without regard
to fiscal year, to the department to augment emergency air medical
transportation reimbursement payments made through the Medi-Cal
program.
(4) The department shall seek to obtain federal matching funds by
using the moneys in the Emergency Air Medical Transportation Act Fund
for the purpose of augmenting Medi-Cal reimbursement paid to
emergency air medical transportation services providers.
(5) The department shall use the moneys in the Emergency Air
Medical Transportation Act Fund and federal matching funds to
increase the Medi-Cal reimbursement or supplemental payments for
emergency air medical transportation services in an amount not to
exceed normal and customary charges charged by the emergency air
ambulance transportation services provider.
SEC. 2. SEC. 3. If the Commission on
State Mandates determines that this act contains costs mandated by
the state, reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for
those costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with Section
17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government Code.