BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  SB 1465
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   August 6, 2014

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

                  SB 1465 (Hernandez) - As Amended:  August 4, 2014 

          Policy Committee:                             HealthVote:17-0

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

           SUMMARY  

          This omnibus bill makes numerous technical, clarifying, and  
          minor changes to existing law.  It also contains an urgency  
          clause.  Specifically, key provisions of this bill:

          1)Require local emergency medical services agencies (LEMSAs) to  
            send Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Fund reports to the  
            Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA), rather than to  
            the Legislature, and require EMSA to compile and summarize  
            these reports.

          2)Permit DHCS to cancel a provider application review process if  
            an application package is withdrawn at the request of the  
            applicant or provider. 

          3)For purposes of the existing hospital quality assurance fee  
            program, reorganize provisions to distinguish between  
            supplemental payment rates (amounts that hospitals are paid)  
            and fee rates (amount that hospitals pay), define "Fund" as  
            the Hospital Quality Assurance Revenue Fund, specify data  
            sources to be used for calculations, and modify certain  
            payment rates and fee rates.

          4)Extends the sunset on the California Health Benefits Review  
            program until December 1, 2015.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          1)Costs to the Department of Health Care Services and EMSA to  
            incorporate changes from this bill into current practice are  
            negligible. 









                                                                  SB 1465
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          2)Extending the sunset on the CHBRP program will result in state  
            costs for an additional six months.  The program is currently  
            budgeted at $2 million annually. 

           COMMENTS  

           Purpose  . According to the author, this bill makes a number of  
          technical and clarifying changes to existing law in addition to  
          minor substantive changes.  The author explains each county  
          establishing a Maddy Fund is required to report to the  
          Legislature, and public access must be granted in accordance  
          with the Legislative Open Records Act.  Requiring counties to  
          report to the EMSA will improve public access to the  
          information.

          In addition, this bill allows DHCS to withdraw a provider  
          application that will never be completed.  Current law does not  
          authorize such a process. 

          Statutory authorization for the CHBRP program currently expires  
          July 1, 2015.  This bill provides a six-month extension in order  
          to ensure the program does not expire mid-year, which allows  
          additional time for discussion of CHBRP's statutory mandate in  
          light of the changing health insurance marketplace.  

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