BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1733
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Date of Hearing: May 9, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1733 (Logue) - As Amended: April 26, 2012
Policy Committee: HealthVote:19-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
Expands current-law requirements relating to the use of
telehealth in Medi-Cal Managed Care plans to all major health
plans that contract with the Department of Health Care Services.
FISCAL EFFECT
Negligible state fiscal effect.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . According to the author, this bill is a minor
expansion of requirements enacted in AB 415 (Logue), Chapter
547, Statutes of 2011. AB 415 removed administrative barriers
to the use of telehealth in part by ensuring Medi-Cal managed
care plans did not discriminate against services provided via
telehealth, if the services are appropriately provided through
telehealth. This would apply the requirements to all plans
that contract with DHCS for health care services.
2)Background . According to the Center for Connected Health, a
non-profit focusing on telehealth issues, telehealth is the
use of technology and processes to electronically connect
patients with health care providers and educators.
Applications range in complexity from a phone call with a
specialist to virtual appointments with a distant provider via
video conferencing.
AB 415 sought to ensure telehealth was treated at parity with
in-person visits, as long as the visit was appropriately
provided through telehealth. However, this bill only applied
AB 1733
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to full-service health care plans, and did not apply to
several other types of plans that contract with DHCS,
including PACE, SCAN Health Plan, and AIDS Healthcare
Foundation. This bill applies the requirements uniformly.
According to the author, DHCS suggested a technical amendment
last year to address this oversight, but it was too late to
amend the bill at that time.
Analysis Prepared by : Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916) 319-2081