AB 1829, as amended, Conway. California Health Benefit Exchange: employees and contractors.
The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires each state to establish an American Health Benefits Exchange that makes available qualified health plans to qualified individuals and small employers. Existing state law establishes the California Health Benefit Exchange (Exchange) within state government, specifies the powers and duties of the board governing the Exchange, and requires the board to facilitate the purchase of qualified health plans through the Exchange by qualified individuals and small employers by January 1, 2014. Existing law requires the board to employ necessary staff and authorizes the board to enter into contracts. Existing law requires the board to submit to the Department of Justice fingerprint images and related information of specified individuals whose duties include or would include access to specified information for the purposes of obtaining prescribed criminal history information.
The bill would prohibit the board from hiring or contracting with a person, including an employee or prospective employee, who has been convicted of specified crimes if the person’s duties would involve facilitating enrollment in qualified health plans or would give the person access to the financial or medical information of enrollees or potential enrollees of the Exchange. The bill would also require a person who has filed an application for employment with the Exchange to notify the Exchange of any prescribed misdemeanor or felony convictions, filing of misdemeanor or felony charges, or administrative actions that occur after submitting his or her application.
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:
The Legislature finds and declares all of the
2following:
3(a) The mission of the California Health Benefit Exchange
4(Exchange) is to increase the number of insured Californians.
5(b) According to the Exchange, the Assisters Program is
6designed to target populations in California’s vast, geographically
7diverse mix of rural and urban communities, estimated at 4,000,000
8eligible individuals: 100,000 in northern California and Sierra
9counties, 130,000 in the Sacramento area, 390,000 in the greater
10bay area, 250,000 in the San Joaquin Valley, 140,000 in the central
11coast, 780,000 in Los
Angeles, and another 750,000 in southern
12California.
13(c) According to the Exchange, the Assisters Program is
14designed to target populations within the estimated 4,000,000
15eligible individuals that are ethnically diverse: 1,880,000 estimated
16to be Hispanic, 1,340,000 Caucasian, 470,000 Asian, and 210,000
17African American.
18(d) According to the Exchange, the Assisters Program will
19conduct outreach, education, marketing, and enrollment for the
20Exchange to reach the estimated 4,000,000 eligible individuals.
21(e) The Assisters Program is expected tobegin insert bothend insert promote maximum
22enrollment of individuals into coveragebegin insert,end insert
and ensure that assisters
23are knowledgeable of both subsidized and nonsubsidized health
P3 1care coverage and qualified health plans and are equipped with
2the information and expertise needed to successfully enroll
3individuals into coverage.
4(f) The Exchange will use individual assisters, in-person
5assisters, and navigators in the Assisters Program to accomplish
6these goals.
7(g) Individual assisters, in-person assisters, and navigators will,
8necessarily, have access to eligible individuals’ personal identifying
9information, including social security numbers, personal health
10information, and state and federal tax information, to enroll over
114,000,000 Californians in health insurance programs.
12(h) Agents and
brokers, health insurers, and other entities that
13currently handle applications for health care coverage and the
14applicant’s sensitive, personal information are required to be
15licensed by the Department of Insurance.
16(i) The Department of Insurance, by law, is authorized to require
17
applicants for licensure to pass background checks, including
18fingerprinting, as a condition of licensure.
19(j) It is in the public’s interest that eligible individuals
20purchasing health care coverage through the services of an
21individual assister, in-person assister, or navigator have the same
22reasonable expectation of privacy protections afforded to
23Californians purchasing health care coverage through a private
24agent or broker.
25(k) It is the intent of the Legislature to advance the public’s
26interest in protecting and safeguarding eligible individuals from
27the unauthorized and illegal access to, or disclosure of, their
28personal identifying information, personal health information, or
29federal tax information when the Exchange enrolls customers into
30health care plans
for coverage.
Section 100522 is added to the Government Code, 32immediately following Section 100521, to read:
(a) The board shall not hire or contract with any
34person, including, but not limited to, all employees, prospective
35employees, contractors, subcontractors, volunteers, or vendors,
36whose duties would include facilitating enrollment in qualified
37health plans offered through the Exchange or would give the person
38access to the financial or medical information of enrollees or
39potential enrollees of the Exchange if the person has been convicted
40of any of the following:
P4 1(1) A felony crime of dishonesty or breach of trust in a state or
2federal jurisdiction.
3(2) A violation of Section 1033 of Title 18 of the
United States
4Code.
5(3) A crime included in Section 2183.2 of Title 10 of the
6California Code of Regulations.
7(b) A person who has applied for employment with the Exchange
8for a position where, in the course and scope of his or her
9employment, he or she will have access to the financial or medical
10information of enrollees or potential enrollees of the Exchange
11shall immediately notify the Exchange upon any misdemeanor or
12felony conviction, any filing of misdemeanor or felony charges in
13state or federal court, any administrative action regarding a
14professional or occupational license, or any conviction listed in
15subdivision (a), if the action occurs after an application has been
16submitted.
This act is an urgency statute necessary for the
18immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within
19the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into
20immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
21In order to protect and safeguard customers enrolling in qualified
22health plans offered through the California Health Benefit
23Exchange from the unauthorized and illegal access to, or disclosure
24of, their personal identifying information, personal health
25information, or federal tax information at the earliest possible date,
26it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.
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