BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 326 (Beall) - Courts: penalties: emergency services funding
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|Version: February 23, 2015 |Policy Vote: HEALTH 8 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: No |
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|Hearing Date: May 28, 2015 |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy |
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SUSPENSE FILE. AS AMENDED.
Bill
Summary: SB 326 would eliminate the sunset on an existing
program that levies a $4 penalty assessment for Vehicle Code
violations and dedicates the resulting revenues to support
emergency air medical transportation services in the Medi-Cal
program.
Fiscal Impact (as approved on May 28,
2015):
Penalty revenues of $11 million to $13 million per year
(Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund).
Minor administrative costs to process payments (Emergency
Medical Air Transportation Act Fund).
Reduced General Fund expenditures of $2 million to $3 million
SB 326 (Beall) Page 1 of
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per year for Medi-Cal payments, by using penalty revenues to
offset General Fund expenditures for emergency air ambulance
services for Medi-Cal beneficiaries.
Annual expenditures of $18 million to $22 million per year for
supplemental payments to private emergency air medical service
providers (Emergency Medical Air Transportation Act Fund and
federal funds).
Background: Under state and federal law, the Department of Health Care
Services operates the Medi-Cal program, which provides health
care coverage to low income individuals, families, and children.
The federal government provides matching funds that vary from 50
percent to 90 percent of expenditures depending on the category
of beneficiary.
Under current practice, when private emergency air ambulance
services provide service to Medi-Cal beneficiaries, they are
paid through the Medi-Cal fee-for-service system (even if a
beneficiary is enrolled in a Medi-Cal managed care plan). The
operators of air ambulance services have maintained that the
rates paid by Medi-Cal are substantially below their operating
costs. Unlike many health care providers, air ambulance
providers do not have the option to decide whether or not to
accept Medi-Cal patients, given the nature of emergency response
situations. (Public agencies operate air ambulances as well.
However, because these public agencies generally do not use
civilian aircraft that meet federal rules for participation in
Medicaid, public agencies have been unable to bill Medi-Cal for
emergency air ambulance services provided to Medi-Cal
beneficiaries.)
AB 2173 (Beall, Statutes of 2010) levied an additional $4
penalty assessment on Vehicle Code violations (except parking
tickets). Under that law, after accounting for administrative
costs, the state retains 20 percent of resulting revenues to
offset state General Fund expenditures for emergency air
ambulance services. The remaining revenues are matched with
federal matching funds and then provided to private emergency
air ambulance services as supplemental payments, to offset some
of the losses incurred in serving Medi-Cal patients. Current law
terminates collection of the additional penalty assessment on
January 1, 2016. As of June 30, 2017, any unspent funds would be
SB 326 (Beall) Page 2 of
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reverted to the General Fund. Current law sunsets the entire
program on January 1, 2018.
Proposed Law:
SB 326 would eliminate the sunset on an existing program that
levies a $4 penalty assessment for Vehicle Code violations and
dedicates the resulting revenues to support emergency air
medical transportation services in Medi-Cal.
Staff
Comments: The penalty assessment that would be extended in this
bill is only one of many assessments that have been added to
Motor Vehicle Code violations over time. In sum, these
assessments dramatically increase the cost of a violation. For
example, a moving violation penalty that has a base fine of $35
has a total fine, after accounting for all assessments, of $238.
Committee amendments (as adopted May 28, 2015): add a two-year
sunset to the bill.
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