The New Year has begun and so has the new legislative session. As with each new session we anticipate no less than the usual 400 plus bills impacting hospitals and health care delivery… Several high-priority health care bills are already looming in the Legislature, dealing with issues such as charity care, workplace safety and implementation of health care reform. Top priority bills on our radar include: defeating AB 975 in its second year, this measure would create mandates for charity care provided by not-for-profit hospitals; SB 455, which would require CDPH to adopt and amend regulations to require every general acute-care hospital to establish and maintain a patient classification system; and SB 222, which would prohibit a health care provider or health plan from collecting, storing, analyzing or disclosing genetic information without the patient’s written authorization.

Between now and the end of the Legislative Session, February 21, we have our work cut out for us. In addition to the above bills, there are several which we would like to see succeed including:  AB 977, which would require the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges to convene a group of experts in career technical education, business and industry in order to research and recommend strategies for addressing the technical, policy, and fiscal issues related to implementing differential funding for credit-bearing, high-cost, high-demand courses and programs offered by the system; AB 1559, which allowed California Community College to implement, according to specified procedures and requirements, a multi-criteria screening measure when evaluating applicants for oversubscribed nursing programs, also merits support. CHA will also support SB 593, which was introduced to create the opportunity for government to partner with not-for-profit community organizations to establish Social Impact Partnerships.

In terms of the state budget, there are no proposed cuts to health care, mostly because the state finds itself with surplus revenues for the first time in years; however this does not mean there is any new money to reinstate previous program cuts. In Medi-Cal, the budget proposes to relieve retroactive rate reductions – referred to as the AB 97 “claw back” – for some health care providers, but not for hospital-based skilled-nursing facilities. The state will forgive the retroactive recoupments for these providers and services: physicians/clinics, certain drugs, dental, and medical transportation. However, these providers’ Medi-Cal rates going forward will still be reduced by 10 percent, as called for in AB 97 of 2011.

And saving the best for last, let’s talk initiatives! The ballot will be fully loaded with enough measures to make even the strongest among us faint.  The June Primary offers a soft start with just two qualified. Plan for a thick ballot in November and a buzz of activity: four initiatives already qualified; another 18 cleared for circulation; and 26 currently pending with the Attorney General for title and summary.  Among them: our own Medi-Cal Funding and Accountability Act – the hospital fee protection initiative – setting in place the necessary protections from deeper grabs by other interested parties; the MICRA initiative with the clever title Drug and Alcohol Testing of Doctors aimed at fooling the public into increasing the cap on pain and suffering damages in medical negligence lawsuits; Rate Regulation will be back in full force and; it wouldn’t be a ballot without a battle between SEIU and hospitals on CEO compensation and hospital pricing.  Cheers! Here’s to ringing in the New Year with plenty of work to do… Next time – we’ll talk State and Federal elections! Ready for an adult beverage anyone? I sure am!!!