BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 542
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Date of Hearing: August 19, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
SB 542
(Mendoza) - As Amended June 23, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill makes several technical, clarifying, or
noncontroversial changes to the workers' compensation laws,
including the following:
SB 542
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1)Authorizes the Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) to use
additional materials upon which to base a home healthcare fee
schedule.
2)Clarifies medical provider network (MPN), not an employers, is
responsible for providing certain disclosures to workers.
3)Clarifies and defines terms related to MPNs.
4)Other minor, non-controversial changes.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Negligible state fiscal impact.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. According to the author, this bill is intended to
clarify and define a number of minor issues in the workers'
compensation system, all of which are consensus proposals
among workers' compensation stakeholders. The most
substantive provision addresses the scope of the DWC's
authority to adopt the home health care fee schedule, by
authorizing reliance on the recommendation of a recent RAND
report.
2)Home Health Care. One of the numerous issues delegated to the
DWC in 2012 by SB 863 (De Leon), Chapter 363, was the
obligation to adopt a fee schedule for home health services.
At that time, the DWC was directed to follow the approach used
SB 542
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in the IHSS program. However, a subsequent RAND report
recommended that other state and federal programs should be
used as guidance to the DWC on this schedule, and the bill
conforms the statute to the RAND recommendations.
Analysis Prepared by:Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916)
319-2081