BILL ANALYSIS �
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 2557
Author: Pan (D), et al.
Amended: 8/22/14 in Senate
Vote: 27 - Urgency
PRIOR VOTES NOT RELEVANT
SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE : 8-0, 8/29/14
(Pursuant to Senate Rule 29.10)
AYES: Hernandez, Morrell, Beall, DeSaulnier, Evans, Monning,
Nielsen, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: De Le�n
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : Hospitals: seismic safety
SOURCE : California Hospital Association
DIGEST : This bill permits a hospital located in the Counties
of Sacramento, San Mateo, or Santa Barbara or the City of San
Jose, that has received an additional extension of the January
1, 2008, seismic safety requirements under specified provisions
of existing law to January 1, 2015, to request an additional
extension until September 1, 2015, in order to obtain either a
certificate of occupancy or a construction final from the Office
of Statewide Health Planning and Development.
ANALYSIS : Existing law:
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1.Establishes timelines for hospital compliance with seismic
safety standards, including a requirement that buildings
posing a significant risk of collapse and a danger to the
public (referred to as SPC -1 buildings) be rebuilt or
retrofitted to be capable of withstanding an earthquake, or
removed from acute care service, by January 1, 2008, and a
requirement that hospital buildings be capable of remaining
intact after an earthquake, and must also be capable of
continued operation by January 1, 2030.
2.Allows the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development
(OSHPD) to grant an extension of up to five years to the 2008
deadline, which would be January 1, 2013, for hospitals for
which compliance will result in a loss of health care
capacity, as defined. Existing law also allows OSHPD to grant
various further extensions beyond this, including up to two
years, which would be January 1, 2015, for certain hospitals
that face construction delays, hospitals that encounter delays
due to an attempt to reclassify their buildings to higher
seismic status, and hospitals that experience local planning
delays. Existing law also allows certain hospitals that have
received five year extensions beyond 2008, to rebuild their
buildings by 2020 in lieu of meeting the January 1, 2013
deadline for retrofitting.
3.Requires owners of general acute care hospital buildings that
are classified as SPC-1 buildings to submit reports to OSHPD
annually describing the status of each building in complying
with the January 1, 2013 deadline.
4.Allows OSHPD to utilize computer modeling based on HAZUS,
which is a seismic risks analysis tool, for purposes of
determining the structural performance category of general
acute care hospital buildings.
This bill:
1.Revises the conditions of deadline extensions granted by OSHPD
for hospitals to comply with certain seismic safety
requirements by allowing a hospital to continue operating
under a deadline extension if either of the following occurs
before the end of the extension:
A. A replacement building has been constructed and a
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certificate of occupancy has been granted by OSHPD for the
replacement building; or
B. A retrofit has been performed on the building and a
construction final has been obtained by OSHPD.
1.Permits a hospital located in the Counties of Sacramento, San
Mateo, or Santa Barbara or the City of San Jose, that has
received an additional extension of the January 1, 2008,
seismic safety requirement under specified provisions of
existing law to January 1, 2015, to request an additional
extension until September 1, 2015, in order to obtain either a
certificate of occupancy or a construction final from OSHPD.
2.Contains an urgency clause, stating that to prevent the loss
of hospital licensure, Medicaid and Medicare funding, and
eligibility for Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance
following a disaster that would lead to hospital closures and
loss of access to health care in these communities, it is
necessary for this act to take effect immediately.
3.Makes legislative findings and declarations that a special law
is necessary and that a general law cannot be made applicable
because of the unique circumstances facing hospitals in the
Counties of Sacramento, San Mateo, and Santa Barbara and the
City of San Jose that are working on meeting seismic safety
building standards.
Comments
According to the author, OSHPD recently identified five
outstanding hospital projects that are working toward the
January 1, 2015 deadline, which, due to extenuating
circumstances such as flooding and unforeseeable construction
delays, may not be completed on time. Not meeting the January
1, 2015, deadline could result in the hospitals losing their
licenses and jeopardizing their ability to participate in
Medicare and Medicaid. This bill provides an eight-month
extension to the January 1, 2015 deadline for those hospitals,
ensuring their communities have uninterrupted access to health
care.
Hospital seismic requirements . Following the 1971 San Fernando
Valley earthquake, California enacted the Alfred E. Alquist
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Hospital Facility Seismic Safety Act of 1973 (Alquist Act),
which mandated that all new hospital construction meet stringent
seismic safety standards. In 1994, after the Northridge
earthquake, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed SB
1953 (Alquist), Chapter 740, Statutes of 1994, which required
OSHPD to establish earthquake performance categories for
hospitals, and established a January 1, 2008, deadline by which
general acute care hospitals must be retrofitted or replaced so
that they do not pose a risk of collapse in the event of an
earthquake, and a January 1, 2030, deadline by which they must
be capable of remaining operational following an earthquake. SB
1953 also allowed most hospitals to qualify for an extension of
the January 1, 2008 deadline to January 1, 2013.
Existing law allows an extension of the 2008 deadline if
compliance will result in an interruption of health care
services provided by hospitals within the area. Hospital owners
can request extensions in one-year increments up to a maximum of
five years after January 1, 2008. Hospitals may also request
extensions of up to five years if acute care services will be
moved to an existing conforming building, relocated to a new
building, or if the existing building will be retrofitted to
designated seismic performance categories.
In addition to the five-year extension, the Legislature has
passed additional bills allowing hospitals to extend the
deadlines for retrofitting beyond the 2013 deadline. SB 1661
(Cox, Chapter 679, Statutes of 2006) authorizes an extension of
up to an additional two years for hospitals that have already
received five-year extensions of the January 1, 2008, seismic
safety compliance deadline if specified criteria are met,
including that the hospital building is under construction at
the time of the request for extension and the hospital is making
reasonable progress toward meeting its deadline, but factors
beyond the hospital's control make it impossible for the
hospital to meet the deadline.
SB 306 (Ducheny, Chapter 642, Statutes of 2007) permits a
hospital owner to comply with seismic safety deadlines and
requirements in current law by replacing all of its buildings
subject to seismic retrofit by January 1, 2020, rather than
retrofitting by 2013 and replacing them by 2030, if the hospital
meets several conditions and OSHPD certifies that the hospital
owner lacks the financial capacity to meet seismic standards, as
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defined. Among the conditions a hospital must meet to be
eligible for this extension are that it maintains a contract to
provide Medi-Cal services, maintains a basic emergency room, and
is either in an underserved area, serves an underserved
community, is an essential provider of Medi-Cal services, or is
a heavy provider of services to Medi-Cal and indigent patients.
Eighteen hospitals have qualified for extensions to 2020 under
this authority.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/29/14)
California Hospital Association (source)
California Association of Nurse Anesthetists
California State Council, SEIU
Hospital Corporation of America
State Building and Construction Trades Council of California
OPPOSITION : (Verified 8/29/14)
California Nurses Association
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The California Hospital Association
(CHA), the sponsor of this bill, writes that five hospitals will
likely not meet the January 1, 2015, seismic deadline
established in California law. According to CHA, many designers
and structural engineers consider California hospitals to be the
most complex and costly buildings to construct due to all the
intricate systems that need to remain operational following an
earthquake. CHA further states that the consequences for these
hospitals will be severe and restrict access to care in the
surrounding communities.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : The California Nurses Association
(CNA) writes that if seismic standards cannot be met after
extensions have already been granted, hospitals should not
continue to admit patients and place them and hospital staff at
risk for injury due to seismic non-compliance. CNA further
states earthquakes are a common occurrence in California since
the state has over 100 active faults known to produce large
earthquakes.
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JL:nl 8/29/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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