BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 376
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Date of Hearing: April 29, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
376 (Lopez) - As Amended April 21, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY:
This bill requires county welfare departments, beginning July 1,
2016, to first search the California Immunization Registry
(CAIR), and find no record of immunization, prior to requesting
AB 376
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CalWORKs applicants or recipients to submit vaccination
documentation for children under age six who are not required to
be enrolled in school.
FISCAL EFFECT:
About one-third of counties already use CAIR for this purpose.
The costs to train additional staff to use CAIR are minor and
likely absorbable within existing county training budgets.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. By using CAIR to verify children's immunization
histories before requiring families to provide documentation,
this bill seeks to assist families in the navigation of the
CalWORKs eligibility and redetermination process and,
ultimately, reduce the number of families facing reduced grant
amounts resulting from tardy submission of verification.
According to the author, "this bill will help streamline and
simplify an administrative process, which will help families
access the support they need by using current technology to
verify immunization records. Currently, CalWORKs requires an
applicant or recipient to immunize their minor children and
provide proof of immunization. For our most vulnerable
populations, this extra step in the process to receive
benefits can add to an already stressful situation. This bill
would require the county first review the California State
registry of immunizations, which is maintained by the
Department of Public Healt, before asking the family to
provide the records. If the registry indicates that the
children have not met the immunization requirements, then the
county can request verification of immunization."
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2)CalWORKs immunization requirements: The Personal
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act
(PRWORA) of 1996 was the federal law creating the federal TANF
program which offers block grants to states to design their
own welfare programs. One of the many provisions contained in
PRWORA permits states to create "individual responsibility
plans" for participants that may, among other things, require
individuals to immunize their children.
In 1997, the Legislature created the CalWORKs program as
California's implementation of federal welfare reform. Among
its many provisions is the requirement that all applicants for
and recipients of CalWORKs benefits provide documentation that
any children in the assistance unit under the age of 6 have
received all age-appropriate immunizations. If documentation
is not provided within the required 30 or 45 day time period,
a parent's or caretaker relative's needs are not considered in
determining the grant amount for the assistance unit. Since
2012, on average, 97,000 adults per year have been penalized
for not providing timely verification of immunization.
3)California Immunization Registry (CAIR). Maintained by the
Department of Public Health, CAIR is a secure and confidential
statewide computerized information system consisting of nine
separate regional immunization registries. CAIR covers 57 of
California's 58 counties; Imperial County operates its own
registry that is not part of the CAIR system. CAIR enables
authorized users to access immunization data within their
defined region, however, look-up access to other regional
registries is available to state or county governmental
agencies upon request. It is expected that CAIR will
eventually allow authorized users to access immunization data
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across the state by integrating its regional databases. This
effort, the "CAIR 2.0 Project," is currently underway and
integration is expected to be completed by the summer of 2017.
Nearly 2.9 million children under the age of 6 (96.7% of the
total age-group population in the state) have immunization
records contained in CAIR. Authorized users of CAIR include
health care providers and plans, schools, county welfare
departments, foster care agencies, family child care homes and
child care facilities. Users must sign a confidentiality
agreement to access CAIR, and need a user ID and password to
log in to the registry.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081