BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
SB 1339 (Monning) - Public social services: intercounty
transfers
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|Version: April 21, 2016 |Policy Vote: HUMAN S. 4 - 0, |
| | HEALTH 7 - 0 |
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|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
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|Hearing Date: May 27, 2016 |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy |
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Bill
Summary: SB 1339 would make a number of changes to the
intercounty transfer process used when a beneficiary of public
assistance programs moves between counties.
*********** ANALYSIS ADDENDUM - SUSPENSE FILE ***********
The following information is revised to reflect amendments
adopted by the committee on May 27, 2016
Fiscal
Impact:
Potential one-time costs up to $150,000 to revise existing
regulations governing the intercounty transfer process by the
Department of Health Care Services (General Fund and federal
funds).
Potential one-time costs up to $150,000 to revise existing
SB 1339 (Monning) Page 1 of
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regulations governing the intercounty transfer process by the
Department of Social Services (General Fund).
Unknown state reimbursable mandate costs, to the extent that
the bill results in significantly higher administrative costs
to the counties (General Fund). In general, the bill does not
impose a higher level of service on the counties, as a whole.
Rather, the bill changes existing processes at the county
level. There are some elements of the bill, however, that may
increase county costs. For example the bill requires counties
to transfer responsibility for benefits within 30 days of
either county becoming aware of a recipient's move, whereas
current law requires the transfer of responsibility to occur
on the first day of the month following 30 days of
notification to the receiving county. Whether shortening the
timeline for transferring responsibility will have a
significant administrative cost to the counties is unknown.
Unknown additional expenditures for CalFresh and CalWorks
benefits due to additional beneficiaries retaining eligibility
after a move between counties (General Fund and local funds).
Under current law, the receiving county is required to
determine a beneficiary's continuing eligibility for aid. This
bill would prohibit the receiving county from interviewing
recipients to determine continuing eligibility. By removing
this requirement, it is likely that the bill will result in
some beneficiaries retaining benefits until the next
redetermination period who would have lost benefits after a
move (e.g. because the beneficiary no longer meets program
eligibility requirements). The extent of this impact is
unknown.
Unknown additional costs for Medi-Cal benefits (General Fund
and federal funds). Most Medi-Cal beneficiaries are enrolled
in managed care. Medi-Cal does not allow an enrollee to be
covered by more than one managed care plan in any given month.
Under current practice, when a Medi-Cal enrollee moves between
counties, the enrollee would normally only be eligible for
emergency services in the new county until his or her
disenrollment from the original managed care plan was
processed. Under the bill, a beneficiary would be able to
request an expedited disenrollment that would be effective the
next business day. The beneficiary would then be entitled to
full-scope fee-for-service benefits for the remainder of the
SB 1339 (Monning) Page 2 of
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month. Making this change will allow some number of
beneficiaries to access additional, non-emergency health care
services for the remainder of the month of the move. The
extent of those costs is unknown.
Committee
Amendments: Delete the requirement that beneficiaries be able
to directly request an expedited enrollment from a Medi-Cal
managed care plan from the Medi-Cal Managed Care Ombudsman.
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