BILL NUMBER: AB 27 CHAPTERED 10/10/99 CHAPTER 950 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE OCTOBER 10, 1999 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 8, 1999 PASSED THE SENATE SEPTEMBER 7, 1999 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 16, 1999 AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 23, 1999 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 28, 1999 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 28, 1999 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 5, 1999 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Nakano DECEMBER 7, 1998 An act to amend and renumber Sections 101800, 101805, 101810, 101815, and 101820 of, to amend and renumber the heading of Part 5 (commencing with Section 101800) of, and to add Part 6 (commencing with Section 101840) to Division 101 of, the Health and Safety Code, relating to public social services, and making an appropriation therefor. (Approved by Governor October 10, 1999. Filed with Secretary of State October 10, 1999.) I am signing AB 27, which requires the California Health and Human Services Agency to prepare a long term care information infrastructure blueprint. However, I am deleting the $149,000 General Fund appropriation from the bill and instead directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services Agency to implement the provisions of AB 27 within existing resources. GRAY DAVIS, Governor LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 27, Nakano. Long-term care infrastructure blueprint. Existing law provides for the provision of various long-term care services. This bill would require the California Health and Human Services Agency to develop a long-term care infrastructure blueprint, and to contract with a consulting firm possessing specified qualifications for the preparation of a technical analysis of infrastructure development costs relating to long-term care. This bill would require the agency to report to the Legislature on the results of the technical analysis and the progress on the development of the infrastructure blueprint on or before January 1, 2001. The bill would appropriate $149,000 from the General Fund to the California Health and Human Services Agency for the purpose of funding the preparation of the long-term care infrastructure blueprint and technical analysis of infrastructure development costs required by the bill. Existing law provides that certain philanthropic support is not treated as revenue allocable to the cost of care provided by a health facility or clinic. This bill would make nonsubstantive, technical changes to those provisions. Appropriation: yes. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The heading of Part 5 (commencing with Section 101800) of Division 101 of the Health and Safety Code is amended and renumbered to read: PART 6. OTHER SEC. 2. Section 101800 of the Health and Safety Code is amended and renumbered to read: 101980. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the Voluntary Health Facility and Clinic Philanthropic Support Act. SEC. 3. Section 101805 of the Health and Safety Code is amended and renumbered to read: 101983. The Legislature finds and declares that, while there continues to be a need to focus on the deficiencies in the health care system and on corrective reform measures that might be taken, there is also need for focus on the enhancement of its strengths. Existing philanthropic support for health facilities and clinics is a strength that must be preserved and enhanced under any reform measure for all of the following reasons: (a) Philanthropy imbues members of the community with a sense of pride in their voluntary nonprofit health facilities and clinics and creates a setting in which members of the community are willing to devote time and effort to improve health care available in the community in a way that government regulation could never replace. (b) Philanthropy allows voluntary nonprofit institutions to conduct research and to engage in other innovative efforts to improve health care in California. (c) Philanthropy provides required discretionary dollars for voluntary nonprofit institutions, that, in part, substitute for the absence of profits. (d) Philanthropy allows hospitals to replace worn out and obsolete facilities when, in a period of high inflation, historical costs accumulated through depreciation are totally insufficient to provide for the replacement. (e) Philanthropy pays for necessary expenditures that otherwise would have to be paid by patients or by government. (f) Philanthropy may be discouraged by certain shortsighted actions of administrative agencies that, while purporting to serve a short-term purpose, seriously deter the vast benefits to the health care field inuring directly from philanthropy and voluntarism. (g) Recent amendments to the federal tax laws to broaden the use of the standard deduction also have the effect of eliminating important incentives for philanthropy. SEC. 4. Section 101810 of the Health and Safety Code is amended and renumbered to read: 101985. It is, therefore, the intent of the Legislature to create an environment in which philanthropy and voluntarism in the health care field and the vast benefits arising from it for the citizens of California can be encouraged. The Legislature hereby declares it to be the policy of this state that philanthropic support for health care be encouraged and expanded, especially in support of experimental and innovative efforts to improve the health care delivery system. SEC. 5. Section 101815 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read: 101987. For purposes of any state law, whether enacted before or on or after January 1, 1980, that in any manner provides for regulation, review, or reporting of the budget, rates, or revenues of health facilities, as defined in Section 1250, or clinics, as defined in Section 1204, including the provisions of Part 1.7 (commencing with Section 440), none of the following shall be treated directly, or indirectly, as revenues allocable to the cost of care provided by the health facility or clinic: (a) A donor-designated or restricted grant, gift, endowment, or income therefrom, as defined in Section 405.423(b) of Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations, insofar as permitted by federal law. (b) A grant or gift, or income from a grant or gift, that is not available for use as operating funds because of its designation by the governing board or entity of the health facility or clinic. (c) A grant or similar payment that is made by a governmental entity and that is not available, under the terms of the grant or payment, for use as operating funds. (d) Amounts attributable to the sale or mortgage of any real estate or other capital assets of the health facility or clinic that it acquired through a gift or grant, and that are not available for use as operating funds under the terms of the gift or grant or because of designation as provided in subdivision (b). (e) A depreciation fund that is created by the health facility or clinic in order to meet a condition imposed by a third party for the third party's financing of a capital improvement of the health facility or clinic, provided the fund is used exclusively to make payments to the third party for the financing of the capital improvement. (f) Funds used to defray the expense of fundraising. SEC. 6. Section 101820 of the Health and Safety Code is amended and renumbered to read: 101989. No state law shall be construed to discourage philanthropic support of health facilities and clinics, or to otherwise hinder the use of this support for purposes determined by the recipients to be in the best interests of the physicians and patients it serves. However, in enacting this chapter and Section 14106.2 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, the Legislature does not intend to place any restrictions on cost containment measures relating to health facilities that may be enacted in the future. SEC. 7. Part 5 (commencing with Section 101950) is added to Division 101 of the Health and Safety Code, to read: PART 5. LONG-TERM CARE INFRASTRUCTURE BLUEPRINT 101950. (a) The California Health and Human Services Agency shall develop a long-term care infrastructure blueprint to analyze how information technology could be utilized to do all of the following: (1) Provide consistent information and referrals to consumers' requests for information on long-term care service availability and eligibility requirements. (2) Develop a core client services record that contains key assessment and care planning information. (3) Transmit core client information from one agency to another when making a service referral. (4) Create a long-term care data warehouse at state level to facilitate state and regional long-term care strategic planning, development, and evaluation. (b) The blueprint developed shall include all of the following: (1) A technical analysis of the data currently being collected by public long-term care programs. (2) An evaluation of the information technology currently available to accomplish tasks specified in subdivision (a). (3) A cost-benefit analysis of the information technology options identified. (4) A proposal of incremental steps, and the corresponding budgetary outlays, required to develop the long-term care information infrastructure. (c) The agency shall contract with a consulting firm that has been successful in assisting other states in undertaking similar infrastructure building endeavors, or that can demonstrate comparable experience, for preparation of the technical analysis. (d) The agency shall ensure that the planning, development, and implementation of changes that occur as a result of this section encourage and allow concurrent implementation and operation of a long-term care integration pilot project consistent with Article 4.3 (commencing with Section 14139.05) of Chapter 7 of Part 3 of Division 9. (e) The agency shall report to the Legislature, in writing, on or before January 1, 2001, regarding the results of the technical analysis and the progress made on the development of the long-term care infrastructure blueprints. (f) The sum of one hundred forty-nine thousand dollars ($149,000) is hereby appropriated from the General Fund to the California Health and Human Services Agency for the purpose of providing funds to contract with an outside consultant who shall be responsible for preparing the long-term care infrastructure blueprint and technical analysis of infrastructure development costs required by this section.