BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



          SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                             Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
                            2015 - 2016  Regular  Session

          SB 514 (Anderson) - California Health Benefit Exchange
          
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          |Version: January 15, 2016       |Policy Vote: HEALTH 6-0         |
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          |Urgency: Yes                    |Mandate: No                     |
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          |Hearing Date: January 21, 2016  |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy    |
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          *********** ANALYSIS ADDENDUM - SUSPENSE FILE ***********
             The following information is revised to reflect amendments 
                    adopted by the committee on January 21, 2016


          Bill  
          Summary:  SB 514 would prohibit the California Health Benefit  
          Exchange (Covered California) from sharing personal information  
          from an applicant for health care coverage with a certified  
          insurance agent or certified enrollment counsellor without the  
          consent of the applicant.


          Fiscal  
          Impact:  
           Potential one-time costs of about $300,000 to modify  
            information technology systems by Covered California to allow  
            applicants to indicate whether they would like assistance  
            (special fund). The bill, as amended, does not require Covered  
            California to develop a process for allowing an applicant to  
            indicate whether personal information can be shared. If  
            Covered California does develop such a system, it would incur  
            the costs above.







          SB 514 (Anderson)                                      Page 1 of  
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           Unknown potential costs to develop the systems and procedures  
            to pass along consumer information (upon consumer request) to  
            certified insurance agents or enrollment counsellors (special  
            fund). In addition to the system changes needed to allow a  
            consumer to consent to having contact information shared with  
            insurance agents or enrollment counsellors, Covered California  
            will need to develop systems and procedures for taking the  
            appropriate information and sharing it with the appropriate  
            partners. Covered California does not yet have a plan for how  
            that process would work, so no cost estimates are available at  
            this time. It is likely that the costs to create those "back  
            end" systems would be in the low hundreds of thousands. As  
            noted above, those costs would only occur if Covered  
            California decided to implement a system to allow the sharing  
            of applicant information, with consumer consent.
              
           Potential minor costs to revise paper applications for health  
            care coverage by the Department of Health Care Services  
            (General Fund and federal funds). The state uses a single  
            paper application for the Medi-Cal program and coverage  
            through Covered California. In order to comply with the  
            requirements of this bill, the Department would likely need to  
            update the paper application to opt out of future contacts.  
            The costs to do so are not expected to be significant since  
            the Department regularly revises those forms.


          Committee  
          Amendments:  Eliminate the requirement that Covered California  
          allow an applicant to indicate whether or not the applicant  
          would like his or her personal information shared with a  
          certified insurance agent or enrollment counsellor. (The bill  
          would continue to prohibit such information sharing without the  
          consent of an applicant.)


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