BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
AB 491 (Ma) - General acute care hospitals: cardiac
catheterization.
Amended: August 30, 2012 Policy Vote: Health
Urgency: Yes Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: August 29, 2012
Consultant: Brendan McCarthy
This bill does not meet the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Bill Summary: AB 491, an urgency measure, would authorize
general acute care hospitals to provide cardiac catheterization
services in a connected outpatient facility.
Fiscal Impact:
One-time costs up to $150,000 for the Office of Statewide
Health Planning and Development to adopt regulations
(Hospital Building Fund).
One-time costs up to $150,000 for the Department of Public
Health to adopt regulations (Licensing and Certification
Program Fund).
Background: Under current law, the Office of Statewide Health
Planning and Development is responsible for enforcing seismic
safety and other facility standards for health care facilities.
Also under current law, the Department of Public Health licenses
acute care hospitals.
Current law requires a cardiac catheterization laboratory
service to be located in a general acute care hospital that is
either licensed to perform cardiovascular services or has a
licensed intensive care service and coronary care service and
has an agreement on the transfer of patients to a general acute
care hospital that is licensed for cardiac services.
Proposed Law: AB 491 would authorize general acute care
hospitals to provide cardiac catheterization services in a
connected outpatient facility.
AB 491 (Ma)
Page 1
Beginning March 1, 2013, the bill would allow cardiac
catheterization services to be provided outside an acute care
hospital provided the following conditions are met:
The expanded cardiac catheterization laboratory space must
be connected to the hospital by an enclosed, all-weather
passageway.
The service performs no more than 25 percent of its
procedures on hospital inpatients.
The service complies with all policies and procedures
approved by hospital medical staff and all standards and
regulations prescribed by the Department of Public Health
and the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.
The bill requires the Office of Statewide Health Planning and
Development and the Department of Public Health to adopt
emergency regulations by February 28, 2013.
The bill requires the Office of Statewide Health Planning and
Development to review compliance by any impacted cardiac
catheterization laboratory service for compliance with seismic
safety standards for outpatient facilities.
This bill is an urgency measure.
Related Legislation: SB 276 (Corbett) would require the
Department of Public Health to develop regulations regarding the
type of medical procedures that can be performed in a cardiac
catheterization laboratory. That bill is in the Assembly.
Recommended Amendments: Staff recommends the bill be amended to
limit the bill's authority to two acute care hospitals that have
already applied for flexibility to provide these services;
clarify that only 25 percent of a hospital's inpatients can be
served by the outpatient cardiac catheterization lab; ensure
that all statutory and regulatory standards that apply to
inpatient cardiac catheterization labs also apply to impacted
outpatient labs; and require the Office of State Health Planning
and Development and the Department of Public Health to develop
regulatory standards for outpatient labs impacted by the bill.