BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                            Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair


          AB 355 (Cooley) - Emergency medical service: mobile field  
          hospitals.
          
          Amended: May 24, 2013           Policy Vote: Health 9-0
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: No
          Hearing Date: August 12, 2013                           
          Consultant: Brendan McCarthy    
          
          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
          
          
          Bill Summary: AB 355 would appropriate $1 million from the  
          General Fund to the Emergency Medical Services Authority to  
          continue the mobile field hospital program.

          Fiscal Impact: One-time appropriation of $1 million (General  
          Fund).

          Background: In 2006, the state purchased three 200-bed mobile  
          field hospitals, using a combination of General Fund and federal  
          funds. These mobile field hospitals can be deployed in an  
          emergency to replace existing hospital facilities that have been  
          damaged or provide additional hospital capacity.

          In 2011-12, the Budget Act eliminated ongoing General Fund  
          support for the mobile field hospital program. (Although the  
          state owns the mobile field hospitals, the state has paid a  
          contractor to maintain the hospitals such that they can be  
          deployed within a relatively short period of time.) The  
          Emergency Medical Services Authority worked with the contractor  
          to continue to maintain the hospitals for one year, with the  
          authority for the contractor to lease out two of the hospitals  
          to other governments, if necessary.

          In the current year, the Emergency Medical Services Authority  
          plans to redirect $270,000 in federal funds to maintain one  
          mobile field hospital in a 72-hour deployable state. The other  
          two mobile field hospitals would be placed in storage, with a  
          two-week delay before potential deployments.

          Proposed Law: AB 355 would appropriate $1 million from the  
          General Fund to the Emergency Medical Services Authority to  








          > (>)
          Page 1


          continue the mobile field hospital program.

          This appropriation would allow the Emergency Medical Services  
          Authority to store all three mobile field hospitals in different  
          regions of the state with a 72-hour deployment capability.