BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  SB 271
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   August 14, 2013

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

                  SB 271 (Hern�ndez) - As Amended:  August 6, 2013 

          Policy Committee:                             HealthVote:19-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill deletes the January 1, 2014 sunset date and makes  
          permanent the Associate Degree Nursing Scholarship Pilot Program  
          (ADN Scholarship Program), and deletes references to the program  
          as a pilot. 

          It also requires the Office of Statewide Health Planning and  
          Development (OSHPD) to post ADN Scholarship Program statistics  
          on its website.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Approximately $500,000 annually in continued expenditures from  
          the Registered Nurse Education Fund (RNEF) to support the ADN  
          Scholarship Program administered by OSHPD.   Approximately  
          $400,000 is used for scholarships and the remaining $100,000 is  
          used for administrative support. 

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale . This bill ensures that the ADN Scholarship Program  
            will continue to operate.  The author believes the ADN  
            Scholarship Program improves the state's ability to educate  
            the incoming population of nursing students, in order to  
            alleviate a nursing shortage.  

           2)Background  . The RNEF, supported by a $10 surcharge on all  
            registered nurse (RN) licensure renewals, provides  
            approximately $1.7 million per year to support three  
            scholarship and loan repayment programs for nurses.   
            Approximately $500,000 annually from the RNEF is used to fund  
            the ADN Scholarship Program.  In return for receiving up to  








                                                                  SB 271
                                                                  Page  2

            $10,000 for one academic year, scholarship awardees enrolled  
            in an associate's degree nursing program must agree to  
            practice direct patient care for two years in a medically  
            underserved area of California. OSHPD reports that demand for  
            scholarships vastly outweighs available funding. 

           3)Related Legislation  :

             a)   AB 565 (Salas) revises program criteria of the Steven M.  
               Thompson Physician Corps Loan Repayment Program (STLRP) and  
               revises the definition of practice setting for purposes of  
               the STLRP. AB 565 is pending in Senate Appropriations  
               Committee.  

             b)   AB 860 (Perea and Bocanegra) appropriates $600,000 from  
               the Managed Care Fund to the Steven M. Thompson Medical  
               School Scholarship Program.  AB 860 was held on the  
               Suspense File of this committee.

             c)   AB 1176 (Bocanegra and Bonta) establishes the Medical  
               Residency Training Program to fund graduate medical  
               education (GME) residency programs in California, and  
               requires every health insurer or health care service plan  
               that provides health care coverage in this state to pay an  
               annual GME assessment of $5 for each covered life for  
               purposes of the MRT Program.  AB 1176 was held on the  
               Suspense File of this committee.

             d)   SB 20 (Hern�ndez), also being heard in committee today,  
               redirects penalty revenue currently earmarked for the Major  
               Risk Medical Insurance Program (MRMIP) to the STLRP.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916) 319-2081