BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  SB 906
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:  June 10, 2014

                            ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
                                 Richard Pan, Chair
                      SB 906 (Correa) - As Amended: June 4, 2014

           SENATE VOTE  :  36-0
           
          SUBJECT  :  Elective Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Offsite  
          Program.

           SUMMARY  :  Creates the Elective Percutaneous Coronary  
          Intervention (PCI) Offsite Program in the Department of Public  
          Health (DPH) to certify general acute care hospitals that are  
          licensed to provide cardiac catheterization laboratory services  
          in California, to perform scheduled, elective percutaneous  
          transluminal coronary angioplasty and stent placement for  
          eligible patients.  Specifically,  this bill  :  

          1)Defines "Elective Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (elective  
            PCI)" to mean scheduled percutaneous transluminal coronary  
            angioplasty and stent placement, and not urgent or emergent  
            PCI.

          2)Defines an "eligible hospital" as a general acute care  
            hospital that has a licensed cardiac catheterization  
            laboratory and is in substantial compliance with all  
            applicable state and federal licensing laws and regulations.  

          3)Defines an "offsite" hospital as a hospital participating in  
            the PCI Offsite Program and requires eligible hospitals  
            wishing to participate in the PCI Offsite Program to obtain  
            certification from DPH and meet all of the following  
            requirements:

             a)   Demonstrate that it complies with the recommendations of  
               the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and  
               Interventions (SCAI), the American College of Cardiology  
               Foundation, and the American Heart Association (AHA), for  
               performance of PCI without onsite cardiac surgery;

             b)   Provide evidence showing the full support from hospital  
               administration in fulfilling the necessary institutional  
               requirements, including, but not limited to, appropriate  
               support services such as respiratory care and blood  








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               banking;

             c)   Participate in, and provide timely submission of data  
               to, the American College of Cardiology-National  
               Cardiovascular Data Registry; and,

             d)   Confer rights to transfer the data submitted pursuant to  
               c) above to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and  
               Development (OSHPD).

          4)Requires eligible hospitals to submit an application to DPH to  
            obtain certification to participate in the Elective PCI  
            Offsite Program which includes, but is not limited to, the  
            effective date for initiating elective PCI service, the  
            general service area, a description of the population to be  
            served, a description of backup emergency services, and the  
            qualifications of the general acute care hospital providing  
            emergency treatment.

          5)Allows an eligible hospital that as of December 31, 2014 was  
            participating in the Elective PCI Pilot Program to continue to  
            perform elective PCI and requires that the hospital be  
            considered an offsite hospital provided it obtains  
            certification from DPH by January 1, 2016.

          6)Requires OSHPD to use the data transferred to them to annually  
            develop and make available to the public a report regarding  
            each offsite hospital's performance on mortality, stroke rate,  
            and emergency coronary artery bypass graft rate.

          7)Allows DPH to establish an advisory oversight committee, to  
            revoke the certification of an offsite hospital if it fails to  
            meet the requirements of these provisions, to charge  
            participating hospitals a supplemental fee not to exceed the  
            reasonable cost of overseeing the program and to contract with  
            a professional entity with medical program knowledge to meet  
            the requirements of this bill.

           EXISTING LAW  :  

          1)Provides for the licensing and regulation of general acute  
            care hospitals by DPH, and in addition to the basic services  
            offered under that license, permits general acute care  
            hospitals to seek approval from DPH to offer special services,  
            including cardiac surgery and cardiac catheterization  








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            laboratory services.

          2)Requires DPH to adopt standards and regulations for cardiac  
            catheterization laboratory services that specify that only the  
            diagnostic services, and which diagnostic services, may be  
            offered by an acute care hospital approved to provide cardiac  
            catheterization laboratory service.

          3)Establishes the PCI Pilot Program to allow DPH to authorize up  
            to six general acute care hospitals that are licensed to  
            provide cardiac catheterization laboratory services in  
            California, that meet specified requirements, to perform  
            scheduled, elective percutaneous transluminal coronary  
            angioplasty (PTCA) and stent placement for eligible patients  
            without onsite cardiac surgery.

          4)Establishes an Advisory Oversight Committee, comprised of one  
            interventionalist from each pilot hospital, an equal number of  
            cardiologists from nonpilot hospitals, and a representative  
            from DPH, to oversee, monitor, and make recommendations to DPH  
            concerning the PCI Pilot program.

          5)Requires the AOC to submit at least two reports to DPH during  
            the pilot period, and to conduct a final report at the  
            conclusion of the PCI Pilot Program, including recommendations  
            for the continuation or termination of the PCI Pilot Program.

          6)Requires DPH to prepare and submit a report to the Legislature  
            on the results of the PCI Pilot Program no later than 90 days  
            after termination of the PCI Pilot Program.  Requires this  
            report to include, but not be limited to, an evaluation of the  
            PCI Pilot Program's cost, safety, and quality of care.   
            Requires the report also include a comparison of elective PCI  
            performed in connection with the PCI Pilot Program, and  
            elective PCI performed in hospitals with onsite cardiac  
            surgery services.  Requires the report to further recommend  
            whether elective PCI without onsite cardiac surgery should be  
            continued in California, and if so, under what conditions.
          7)Sunsets the provisions of law creating the PCI Pilot Program  
            on January 1, 2015.

           FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Senate Appropriations  
          Committee, one-time costs of about $110,000 for initial  
          licensing of hospitals by DPH (Licensing and Certification  
          Program Fund (LCPF)), minor ongoing costs to review compliance  








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          by participating hospitals (LCPF), and minor reporting costs by  
          OSHPD (California Health Data and Planning Fund).

           COMMENTS  :

           1)PURPOSE OF THIS BILL  .  According to the author, until the  
            passage of SB 891 (Correa), Chapter 295, Statues of 2008, only  
            California hospitals licensed to provide cardiac surgery, such  
            as bypass surgery, were permitted to perform scheduled,  
            elective PCI treatment.  SB 891 created the Elective PCI Pilot  
            Program, which allowed six California general acute care  
            hospitals that are licensed to provide cardiac catheterization  
            services, that have off-site cardiac surgery backup, and that  
            met the specified rigorous selection criteria, to perform  
            scheduled, elective PCI for low to medium risk patients.  The  
            author argues that expanding access to quality healthcare and  
            addressing health disparities is important to improving  
            patients' quality of life and this bill is prompted by studies  
            showing that elective PCI for low to medium risk patients can  
            be safely and effectively performed in hospitals without  
            cardiac surgery services so long as they meet certain  
            requirements, including that they have in place stringent  
            patient selection criteria and a transfer agreement that  
            ensures transfer to a hospital with cardiac surgery services  
            within 60 minutes or less.  Finally, the author argues that  
            the reports compiled by the oversight committee showing the  
            morbidity and mortality results of procedures from the pilot  
            hospitals from the past two plus years have been consistent  
            with the morbidity and mortality results from hospitals not  
            enrolled in the pilot program.

           2)BACKGROUND  .  PCI encompasses a variety of procedures used to  
            treat patients with diseased arteries of the heart such as,  
            chest pain caused by a build-up of fats, cholesterol, and  
            other substances from the blood (referred to as plaque) that  
            can reduce blood flow to a near trickle, or a heart attack  
            caused by a large blood clot that completely blocks the  
            artery.  The American Heart Association reports that PCI is  
            typically performed by PTCA, or threading a catheter - a  
            slender balloon-tipped tube - from the artery in the groin to  
            a trouble spot in an artery of the heart.  The balloon is then  
            inflated, compressing the plaque and dilating the narrowed  
            coronary artery so that blood can flow more easily.  This is  
            also accompanied by inserting an expandable metal stent, a  
            wire mesh tube used to prop open arteries after PTCA.  For  








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            patients suffering from a heart attack, science shows that  
            patients benefit from the restoration of blood flow to the  
            heart muscle within 90 minutes of the patient's arrival at the  
            hospital.  PCI done under emergency circumstances is referred  
            to as "primary" PCI.  Other PCI procedures, such as those done  
            to unblock an artery before a heart attack occurs, are  
            referred to as "elective" PCI.

          A 2005 joint report of the American College of Cardiology, AHA,  
            and SCAI provides guidelines for the management of patients  
            undergoing PCI.  The report recommends that elective PCI be  
            performed in facilities that have an experienced  
            cardiovascular surgical team available onsite as emergency  
            back-up for all elective PCI procedures.  However, the report  
            acknowledges that several centers, which do not have onsite  
            cardiac surgery services have reported satisfactory results  
            with elective PCI based on careful case selection and  
            well-defined arrangements for immediate transfer to a surgical  
            program.  The report notes that a small but real fraction of  
            patients undergoing elective PCI will experience a life  
            threatening complication that could be managed with immediate  
            onsite availability of cardiac surgical support but cannot be  
            managed effectively by urgent transfer.  The report ultimately  
            classifies elective PCI without onsite back-up cardiac surgery  
            services as a Class III recommendation reserved for conditions  
            for which there is evidence and/or general agreement that the  
            procedure or treatment is not useful and/or effective and in  
            some cases may be harmful.  

            In early 2007, SCAI, one of the three groups that issued the  
            2005 guidelines, issued a consensus document on best practices  
            for PCI without onsite back-up cardiac surgery services.   
            According to this document, elective PCI without onsite  
            back-up cardiac surgery is being performed with acceptable  
            outcomes in many states and its use is growing.  The consensus  
            document recommends standards for elective PCI, and SB 891  
            requires eligible hospitals to be in compliance with those  
            standards in order to participate in the PCI Pilot Program.   
            The SCAI consensus document also notes that guidelines in  
            other countries do not distinguish between facilities with and  
            without onsite back-up cardiac surgery.

            The six hospitals selected by DPH for the PCI Pilot Program  
            were:  Los Alamitos Medical Center; Sutter Roseville Medical  
            Center; Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek Medical Center; Doctors  








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            Medical Center-San Pablo; Clovis Community Medical Center;  
            and, St. Rose Hospital in Hayward.  All six hospitals have  
            maintained their eligibility to participate throughout the  
            entire program.

            According to the November 19, 2013 final report from the PCI  
            Pilot oversight committee, the PCI Pilot hospitals  
            demonstrated similar safety and efficacy results for elective  
            and non-elective PCIs when compared to 116 hospitals with  
            onsite surgery.  Pursuant to SB 357 (Correa) DPH was required  
            to submit a report to the Legislature recommending whether  
            elective PCI without onsite cardiac surgery should be  
            continued in California, and if so, under what conditions.   
            According to DPH their report to the Legislature is not  
            completed yet.

           3)SUPPORT  .  The California Chapter of the American College of  
            Cardiology supports this bill writing that the recently  
            completed pilot program shows no difference in morbidity and  
            mortality in elective PCI procedures without on-site cardiac  
            surgery and these results are consistent with many other  
            studies.

          The California Hospital Association states this bill will expand  
            access to care, especially for the uninsured and underinsured,  
            which are less likely to undergo PCI due to barriers in  
            accessing specialized cardiac services, such as geography,  
            distance, culture, race, language, and poverty.

           4)RELATED LEGISLATION  .  SB 830 (Galgiani) would have required  
            OSHPD to include heart valve repair and replacement surgeries  
            in their annual risk adjusted outcome reports for coronary  
            artery bypass graft surgeries, and to annually publish a new  
            risk-adjusted outcome report for all PCIs and transcatheter  
            valve procedures performed in California.  SB 830 was held in  
            the Senate Appropriations Committee.




           5)PREVIOUS LEGISLATION  .

             a)   SB 357 (Correa), Chapter 202, Statues of 2013, extends  
               the January 1, 2014 sunset date for the PCI Pilot Program  
               to January 1, 2015, and required the final report by the  








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               oversight committee to be completed by November 30, 2013,  
               rather than at the conclusion of the pilot program.

             b)   SB 891 creates the PCI Pilot Program.

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :

           Support 
           
          California Chapter of the American College of Cardiology
          California Hospital Association
          Tenet
           
            Opposition 
           
          None on file.




           Analysis Prepared by  :    Lara Flynn / HEALTH / (916) 319-2097