BILL NUMBER: AB 2599	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JUNE 1, 2010

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Members Bass and Hall
    (   Coauthor:   Assembly Member  
Fuentes  ) 

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2010

   An act to add Article 5.15 (commencing with Section 14165.50) to
Chapter 7 of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, relating to Medi-Cal, and declaring the urgency thereof, to
take effect immediately.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2599, as amended, Bass. Medi-Cal: South Los Angeles.
   Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is
administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and
under which qualified low-income persons receive health care
benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by
federal Medicaid provisions.
   Existing law authorizes the California Medical Assistance
Commission to negotiate selective provider contracts with eligible
hospitals to provide inpatient hospital services to Medi-Cal
beneficiaries.
   Existing law requires the County of Los Angeles, for the 2007-08,
2008-09, and 2009-10 state fiscal years, to make intergovernmental
transfers to fund the nonfederal share of increased Medi-Cal payments
to those private hospitals that serve the South Los Angeles
population formerly served by Los Angeles County Martin Luther King,
Jr. - Harbor Hospital.
   This bill, in order to facilitate the financial viability of a new
private nonprofit hospital that will serve the population of South
Los Angeles that was formerly served by the Los Angeles County Martin
Luther King Jr. - Harbor Hospital  ,  would 
requires   require  the department and the
California Medical Assistance Commission to take all steps necessary
to ensure the availability of Medi-Cal funding, as specified, or
implement mechanisms to provide equivalent funding under successor or
modified Medi-Cal payment systems.
   This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
   Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


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

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) Until August 2007, the County of Los Angeles operated the Los
Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital, which
provided inpatient and outpatient hospital services to the population
of South Los Angeles.
   (b) During the 2007-08 Regular Session of the Legislature, the
Legislature enacted Senate Bill 474, which, among other things,
created the South Los Angeles Medical Services Prevention Fund.
Senate Bill 474 provided for the South Los Angeles Medical Services
Preservation Fund to be continuously appropriated for each of the
2007-08, 2008-09, and 2009-10 project years for the purpose of
reimbursing the county for its specified costs of meeting the health
care needs of the population formerly serviced by the Los Angeles
County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital. The Legislature
anticipated that funds from the Medi-Cal Hospital Care/Uninsured
Hospital Care Demonstration Project, as provided under Senate Bill
474, would be available to help fund the restoration of hospital
services on the site of the former Los Angeles County Martin Luther
King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital campus.
   (c) The County of Los Angeles and the University of California are
working together to open a new hospital on the former Los Angeles
County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital campus. Both entities
have approved, in principle, the key terms for opening the new
hospital under a private nonprofit entity, which include a
substantial funding commitment by the County of Los Angeles. The new
hospital will serve as a safety net provider in South Los Angeles,
treating a high volume of Medi-Cal and uninsured patients.
   (d) It is contemplated that the new hospital would be located in
the seismically-compliant patient tower on the campus of the former
Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital. The
patient tower meets the requirements as an eligible project pursuant
to Section 14085.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
   (e) It is the intent of the Legislature to facilitate the success
of the new hospital in providing critical health care to the South
Los Angeles population, which is dependent upon adequate and
predictable funding levels.
  SEC. 2.  Article 5.15 (commencing with Section 14165.50) is added
to Chapter 7 of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, to read:

      Article 5.15.  Medi-Cal Funding for South Los Angeles


   14165.50.  To facilitate the financial viability of a new private
nonprofit hospital that will serve the population of South Los
Angeles that was formerly served by the Los Angeles County Martin
Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital, the department and the California
Medical Assistance Commission shall take all steps necessary to
 assure   ensure  the availability of
Medi-Cal funding as specified below, or implement mechanisms to
provide equivalent funding under successor or modified Medi-Cal
payment systems:
   (a) Ensure that the rates for Medi-Cal inpatient hospital services
negotiated under the Selective Provider Contracting Program, as set
forth in Article 2.6 (commencing with Section 14081), shall reimburse
the new hospital at no less than 60 percent of the hospital's costs
for providing the services, exclusive of any supplemental payments.
   (b) Ensure that Medi-Cal payment for debt service incurred by the
County of Los Angeles, and, if applicable, the new hospital, with
respect to capital projects located at the site of the new hospital
that were previously determined eligible under Section 14085.5, will
be made to the new hospital.
   (c) Ensure that Medi-Cal outpatient services, including emergency
room services, will be reimbursed under the same methodology as that
established in Section 14105.24.
   (d) Ensure that the funding provided to the County of Los Angeles
through the South Los Angeles Medical Services Preservation Fund, as
set forth in Section 14166.25, will continue to be made available to
the county for purposes related to meeting the health care needs of
the population formerly served by the Los Angeles County Martin
Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital.
  SEC. 3.  This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
   In order to ensure the restoration of critical health care
services to the South Los Angeles population formerly served by the
Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital and to
ensure that those services remain accessible, it is necessary that
this act take effect immediately.