BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  AB 1793
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   April 25, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                AB 1793 (Yamada) - As Introduced:  February 21, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                              HealthVote:19-0

          Urgency:     Yes                  State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:              No

           SUMMARY  

          This bill adds long-term care (LTC) facilities to the list of 
          entities eligible to receive federal funding allocated for the 
          prevention of, and response to, public health emergencies, and 
          deletes an inoperative date of September 1, 2012 for the statute 
          authorizing distribution of this funding.  

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Negligible state fiscal impact.  

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  .  The author states that this bill is needed to 
            clarify that LTC facilities are eligible to receive federal 
            emergency preparedness funds.  Current state law defines 
            certain eligible facilities, including local health 
            jurisdictions, hospitals, clinics, emergency medical systems, 
            and poison control centers. Since the time the original 
            statute governing distribution of these federal funds was 
            passed, best practices have identified the inclusion of LTC 
            facilities as an important piece of the health care emergency 
            preparedness and response continuum.

           2)Background  . The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 
            Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the Center for 
            Disease Control awards grants to the California Department of 
            Public Health (CDPH) to allocate to health care facilities for 
            emergency preparedness and response, pursuant to a federally 
            approved collaborative state-local plan.   According to the 
            California Association of Health Facilities (CAHF), the 
            sponsor of this bill, although LTC facilities had previously 








                                                                  AB 1793
                                                                  Page  2

            received emergency preparedness funding from CDPH, in 2011 
            they were informed that new DPH legal counsel had taken a 
            different interpretation of existing law. They concluded that 
            LTC facilities are not included in the eligible group to 
            receive federal emergency preparedness and response funds.  
                
            3)Urgency  . This bill states an urgency clause is necessary in 
            order to ensure prevent the lapse of provisions relating to 
            the allocation and expenditure of federal emergency 
            preparedness funds.


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916) 319-2081