BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1011
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Date of Hearing: May 6, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 1011 (Jones) - As Amended: April 15, 2009
Policy Committee: Health Vote:18-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the Office of Health Information Integrity
(OHII) within the California Health and Human Services Agency
(CHHSA) to report to the Legislature on health information
technology and medical privacy issues. Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires OHII to report by April 1, 2010 on the impact of
federal law changes related to health care technology and the
privacy of health and medical information.
2)Requires OHII to evaluate and make recommendations for
statutory changes to ensure that California law complies with
or exceeds federal privacy laws, including changes to the
federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of
1996 (HIPAA), enacted recently through the federal American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
3)Requires OHII to ensure California law is updated to reflect
and promote the development and expansion of health
information technology (HIT), while safeguarding confidential
medical information.
FISCAL EFFECT
One-time costs of $300,000 to OHII for reporting and staff costs
in 2010-11 and 2011-12 related to legal review, analysis, and
statutory recommendations about federal and state requirements
and changes. OHII has only 16 full-time staff under current
law. In order to accomplish the depth of federal and state
analysis required by this bill, OHII would have to either
contract for outside counsel or hire full-time staff.
AB 1011
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COMMENTS
1)Rationale . This bill requires OHII to report to the
Legislature about recent opportunities created under the ARRA
and make recommendations about ensuring California law is
clear and protective with regard to medical privacy and HIT.
The ARRA included the Health Information Technology for
Economic and Clinical Health (HITEACH) Act, which provides $36
billion (federal) over six years for HIT infrastructure and
provider adoption incentives.
According to the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF),
California is well positioned to make effective use of these
new federal funds. CHCF has made recommendations to the
Legislature on how to prepare for and compete for more than $3
billion in funding that California providers will access in
the next several years. This bill helps provide specificity to
the needs of California for planning and statutory changes.
2)California Health Information Technology . The Legislative
Analyst's Office (LAO) and RAND have each recently evaluated
the impact of HIT adoption, such as electronic health records
and personal health records. The LAO confirmed that
paper-based medical records contribute to cost and quality
concerns in health care by reducing efficiency and increasing
medical errors that harm health. The LAO identified the many
benefits of HIT and the numerous efforts within California and
nationwide in both public and private sectors.
Both RAND and the LAO have provided estimates of savings
following adoption of technology solutions in health care.
RAND estimates net annual savings following adoption of $34
billion nationally. LAO estimates, based on research in other
states, fee-for-service Medi-Cal savings in California of up
to $300 million annually by increasing coordination and
reducing duplication across a variety of patient service
areas.
Analysis Prepared by : Mary Ader / APPR. / (916) 319-2081