BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                     SB 299  


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          Date of Hearing:  July 8, 2015


                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS


                                 Jimmy Gomez, Chair


          SB 299  
          (Monning) - As Amended May 18, 2015


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          Urgency:  Yes State Mandated Local Program:  NoReimbursable:  No


          SUMMARY:


          This bill makes minor changes in the processes used by the  
          Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to enroll health care  
          providers in the Medi-Cal program.  Specifically, this bill:  









                                                                     SB 299  


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          1)Exempts from the current DHCS notarization requirements, any  
            provider that chooses to enroll electronically.

          2)Conforms state law to federal regulation by requiring DHCS to  
            designate a provider or applicant as a "high" categorical risk  
            if DHCS (in addition to the federal Centers for Medicare and  
            Medicaid Services (CMS)) lifted a temporary moratorium within  
            the previous six months for the particular provider type  
            submitting the application. 

          3)Deletes various obsolete provisions of law.


          FISCAL EFFECT:


          Negligible fiscal impact.


          COMMENTS:


          Purpose. This bill removes a notarization requirement for  
          Medi-Cal provider applicants that will be obsolete for providers  
          doing their enrollment on-line when DHCS rolls out its new  
          online enrollment system.  Because DHCS the online system is  
          expected to be operative this fall, the bill contains an urgency  
          clause.


          In addition, this bill ensures that California is compliant with  
          federal regulations that specify that the state Medicaid  
          agencies must adjust the categorical risk level to "high" when a  
          state Medicaid agency or CMS in the previous six month lifted a  
          temporary moratorium.  


          There is also obsolete conditional language added by SB 1529  








                                                                     SB 299  


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          (Alquist), Chapter 797, Statutes of 2012, in state law that is  
          removed by this bill, because the conditions are already  
          satisfied.


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