BILL NUMBER: AB 2599 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 17, 2010
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 1, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Bass and Hall
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Fuentes)
FEBRUARY 19, 2010
An act to add Article 5.15 (commencing with Section 14165.50) to
Chapter 7 of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, relating to Medi-Cal, and declaring the urgency thereof, to
take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2599, as amended, Bass. Medi-Cal: South Los Angeles.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is
administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and
under which qualified low-income persons receive health care
benefits. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by
federal Medicaid provisions.
Existing law authorizes the California Medical Assistance
Commission to negotiate selective provider contracts with eligible
hospitals to provide inpatient hospital services to Medi-Cal
beneficiaries.
Existing law requires the County of Los Angeles, for the 2007-08,
2008-09, and 2009-10 state fiscal years, to make intergovernmental
transfers to fund the nonfederal share of increased Medi-Cal payments
to those private hospitals that serve the South Los Angeles
population formerly served by Los Angeles County Martin Luther King,
Jr. - Harbor Hospital.
This bill, in order to facilitate the financial viability of a new
private nonprofit hospital that will serve the population of South
Los Angeles that was formerly served by the Los Angeles County Martin
Luther King Jr. - Harbor Hospital, would require the department and
the California Medical Assistance Commission to take all steps
necessary to ensure the availability of Medi-Cal funding, as
specified, or implement mechanisms to provide equivalent funding
under successor or modified Medi-Cal payment systems.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Until August 2007, the County of Los Angeles operated the Los
Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital, which
provided inpatient and outpatient hospital services to the population
of South Los Angeles.
(b) During the 2007-08 Regular Session of the Legislature, the
Legislature enacted Senate Bill 474, which, among other things,
created the South Los Angeles Medical Services Prevention
Preservation Fund. Senate Bill 474 provided for
the South Los Angeles Medical Services Preservation Fund to be
continuously appropriated for each of the 2007-08, 2008-09, and
2009-10 project years for the purpose of reimbursing the county for
its specified costs of meeting the health care needs of the
population formerly serviced by the Los Angeles County Martin Luther
King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital. The Legislature anticipated that funds
from the Medi-Cal Hospital Care/Uninsured Hospital Care Demonstration
Project, as provided under Senate Bill 474, would be available to
help fund the restoration of hospital services on the site of the
former Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital
campus.
(c) The County of Los Angeles and the University of California are
working together to open a new hospital on the former Los Angeles
County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital campus. Both entities
have approved, in principle, the key terms for opening the new
hospital under a private nonprofit entity, which include a
substantial funding commitment by the County of Los Angeles. The new
hospital will serve as a safety net provider in South Los Angeles,
treating a high volume of Medi-Cal and uninsured patients.
(d) It is contemplated that the new hospital would be located in
the seismically-compliant patient tower on the campus of the former
Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital. The
patient tower meets the requirements as an eligible project pursuant
to Section 14085.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
(e) It is the intent of the Legislature to facilitate the success
of the new hospital in providing critical health care to the South
Los Angeles population, which is dependent upon adequate and
predictable funding levels.
SEC. 2. Article 5.15 (commencing with Section 14165.50) is added
to Chapter 7 of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions
Code, to read:
Article 5.15. Medi-Cal Funding for South Los Angeles
14165.50. (a) To facilitate the financial
viability of a new private nonprofit hospital that will serve the
population of South Los Angeles that was formerly served by the Los
Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital, the
department and the California Medical Assistance Commission shall
take all steps necessary to ensure the availability of Medi-Cal
funding as specified below, or implement mechanisms to provide
equivalent funding under successor or modified Medi-Cal payment
systems:
(a)
(1) Ensure that the rates for Medi-Cal inpatient
hospital services negotiated under the Selective Provider Contracting
Program, as set forth in Article 2.6 (commencing with Section
14081), shall reimburse the new hospital at no less than 60 percent
of the hospital's costs for providing the services, exclusive of any
supplemental payments.
(b)
(2) Ensure that Medi-Cal payment for debt service
incurred by the County of Los Angeles, and, if applicable, the new
hospital, with respect to capital projects located at the site of the
new hospital that were previously determined eligible under Section
14085.5, will be made to the new hospital.
(c)
(3) Ensure that Medi-Cal outpatient services, including
emergency room services, will be reimbursed under the same
methodology as that established in Section 14105.24.
(d)
(4) Ensure that the funding provided to the County of
Los Angeles through the South Los Angeles Medical Services
Preservation Fund, as set forth in Section 14166.25, will continue to
be made available to the county for purposes related to meeting the
health care needs of the population formerly served by the Los
Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital.
(b) The new hospital receiving funds provided for in this section
shall be a private nonprofit hospital established pursuant to an
agreement between the County of Los Angeles and the University of
California.
SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to ensure the restoration of critical health care
services to the South Los Angeles population formerly served by the
Los Angeles County Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital and to
ensure that those services remain accessible, it is necessary that
this act take effect immediately.