BILL ANALYSIS
AB 963
Page 1
Date of Hearing: January 21, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 963 (Ammiano) - As Amended: January 13, 2010
Policy Committee: Health Vote:18-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California Department of Health Care
Services (DHCS) to establish a stakeholder planning group to
develop a joint renewal and recertification form to be used by
Medi-Cal, Food Stamps, and CalWORKs beneficiaries. Specifically,
this bill:
1)Requires DHCS to work with the Department of Social Services
(DSS), beneficiaries, and other stakeholders to generate
recommendations to reduce administrative eligibility barriers.
2)Requires the stakeholder group to develop forms, policies, and
procedures by July 1, 2011.
3)Requires specified features to be developed, determined, and
aligned such as reducing duplicative data, shortening forms,
increasing use of electronic forms, aligning benefit renewal
to reduce the loss of coverage, and increasing data
protections.
4)Requires resulting forms, policies, and procedures to be
implemented via All-County Letters (ACL) by January 1, 2012.
5)Requires the stakeholder group to be funded only with private
funds.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)One-time GF cost pressures of $50,000 to $100,000 to convene
the stakeholder group and conduct analysis to make
recommendations to reduce eligibility barriers. Recent
stakeholder groups addressing similar issues have required
support of between $50,000 and $1 million. Costs depend on the
AB 963
Page 2
depth and breadth of analytical issues considered.
2)This bill specifies the stakeholder group will be funded with
private funds. The author and sponsor indicate interest has
been expressed by philanthropic stakeholders and that federal
Food Stamps funding may also be available to support these
efforts. To enable receipt of federal funds and to reduce GF
costs and pressures, the author may consider clarifying
funding language and curtailing implementation requirements.
3)One-time costs to DHCS of $300,000 (50% GF) to promulgate
regulations and make technology, policy, and process changes
pursuant to this bill.
4)To the extent stakeholder group recommendations are
implemented, unknown future cost pressures to provide
increased continuity of Medi-Cal, CalWORKs, and Food Stamps
benefits. Recent budget proposals by the governor include the
elimination of CalWORKs and the elimination of several core
health services in the Medi-Cal program.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . This bill is co-sponsored by the Western Center on
Law & Poverty (WCLP), the Children's Partnership, and the
United Way of the Bay Area to require DHCS and other
stakeholders to collaborate and make recommendations to reduce
administrative barriers to increase continuity of coverage for
Medi-Cal, Food Stamps, and CalWORKS beneficiaries. According
to the author and sponsors, many state and federal law and
policy changes have enabled a more streamlined approach than
currently implemented in California. This bill requires a
variety of stakeholders to review these law and policies
changes in order to identify administrative barriers to
continuity of coverage.
2)Background . Current law requires counties to take steps to
prevent the loss of Medi-Cal eligibility. For example, if a
county receives information about a change to Medi-Cal
eligibility, the county must continue Medi-Cal coverage during
the eligibility redetermination. In addition, the county is
prohibited from terminating Medi-Cal coverage unless a
specific eligibility requirement is not met. Counties are
required to make every reasonable effort to gather available
information related to other public program data. Many
Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are dropped from coverage due to
non-compliance with reporting requirements later return to the
AB 963
Page 3
program and are found eligible. Reducing the loss and gain of
coverage for beneficiaries, per the goals of AB 963, may
improve care and reduce county administrative costs.
3)Recent Budget Action on Centralized Eligibility . ABX4 7
(Committee on Budget), Chapter 7, Statutes of 2008 authorized
DHCS and DSS to develop a comprehensive implementation plan
regarding a centralized statewide eligibility and enrollment
process for the Medi-Cal, CalWORKs, and Food Stamps programs.
Current eligibility processes are administered by county
welfare departments and rely on a face-to-face and mail-in
application process that is burdensome for both recipients and
administrators.
Several foundations have funded an AB X4 7 centralized
eligibility work group to assess the viability of current and
future efforts for a single statewide eligibility system for
enrollment across health and social service programs including
Medi-Cal, CalWORKs, and Food Stamps, and other programs,
including the Access for Infants and Mothers program (AIM),
Breast and Cervical Cancer Treatment program (BCCTP), Every
Women Counts (EWC) Cancer Detection program, Child Health and
Disability Prevention (CHDP), Family Planning, Access, Care
and Treatment program (FPACT), Healthy Families Program (HFP),
and the Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Nutrition
program (WIC).
The stakeholder group established by AB 963 is much narrower in
scope than the ABX4 7 workgroup with an emphasis on
administrative barriers and reducing the intensity of
paper-based eligibility processes.
Analysis Prepared by : Mary Ader / APPR. / (916) 319-2081