Bill Text: CA AB1204 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Hospital equity reporting.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2021-10-09 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 751, Statutes of 2021. [AB1204 Detail]
Download: California-2021-AB1204-Amended.html
Amended
IN
Senate
August 31, 2021 |
Amended
IN
Senate
July 08, 2021 |
Amended
IN
Assembly
May 24, 2021 |
Amended
IN
Assembly
April 15, 2021 |
Amended
IN
Assembly
April 05, 2021 |
Introduced by Assembly Member Wicks (Coauthor: Assembly Member Aguiar-Curry) |
February 19, 2021 |
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
As used in this article, the following terms have the following meanings:
(a)“Charity care” means free health services provided without expectation of payment to persons who meet the organization’s criteria for financial assistance and are unable to pay for all or a portion of the services. Charity care shall be reported at cost, as reported to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. Charity care does not include bad debt defined as uncollectible charges that the organization recorded as revenue but wrote off due to a patient’s failure to pay.
(b)“Community benefits plan” means the written document prepared for annual
submission to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development that shall include, but shall not be limited to, a description of the activities that the hospital has undertaken in order to address identified community needs within its mission and financial capacity, and the process by which the hospital developed the plan in consultation with the community.
(c)“Community” means the service areas or patient populations for which the hospital provides health care services.
(d)(1)Solely for the planning and reporting purposes of this article, “community benefit” means a hospital’s activities that are intended to address community needs and priorities primarily through disease prevention and improvement of health status, including, but not limited to, any of
the following:
(A)Health care services, rendered to vulnerable populations, including, but not limited to, charity care and the unreimbursed cost of providing services to the uninsured, underinsured, and those eligible for Medi-Cal, Medicare, California Children’s Services Program, or county indigent programs.
(B)The unreimbursed cost of services included in subdivision (d) of Section 127340.
(C)Financial or in-kind support of public health programs.
(D)Donation of funds, property, or other resources that contribute to a community priority.
(E)Health care cost containment.
(F)Enhancement of access to health care or related services that contribute to a healthier community.
(G)Services offered without regard to financial return because they meet a community need in the service area of the hospital, and other services including health promotion, health education, prevention, and social services.
(H)Food, shelter, clothing, education, transportation, and other goods or services that help maintain a person’s health.
(2)“Community benefit” does not mean activities or programs that are provided primarily for marketing purposes or are more beneficial to the organization than to the community.
(e)“Community needs assessment” means the process by which the hospital identifies, for its primary service area as determined by the hospital, unmet community needs.
(f)“Community needs” means those requisites for improvement or maintenance of health status in the community.
(g)“Hospital” means a private not-for-profit acute hospital licensed under subdivision (a), (b), or (f) of Section 1250 and is owned by a corporation that has been determined to be exempt from taxation under the United States Internal Revenue Code. “Hospital” does not mean any of the following:
(1)Hospitals that are dedicated to serving children and that do not receive direct payment for services to any patient.
(2)Small and rural hospitals as defined in Section 124840, unless the hospital is part of a hospital system.
(3)A district hospital organized and governed pursuant to the Local Health Care District Law (Division 23 (commencing with Section 32000)) or a nonprofit corporation that is affiliated with the health care district hospital owner by means of the district’s status as the nonprofit corporation’s sole corporate member pursuant to subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (h) of Section 14169.31 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
(h)“Mission statement” means a hospital’s primary objectives for operation as adopted by its governing body.
(i)“Vulnerable populations” means any population that is exposed to medical or financial risk by virtue of being uninsured, underinsured, or eligible for Medi-Cal, Medicare, California Children’s Services Program, or county indigent programs. “Vulnerable populations” also includes both of the following:
(1)Racial and ethnic groups experiencing disparate health outcomes, including Black/African American, American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian Indian, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Vietnamese, Native Hawaiian, Guamanian or Chamorro, Samoan, or other nonwhite racial groups, as well as individuals of Hispanic/Latino origin, including Mexicans, Mexican Americans, Chicanos, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Cubans, and Puerto Ricans.
(2)Socially
disadvantaged groups, including all of the following:
(A)The unhoused.
(B)Communities with inadequate access to clean air and safe drinking water, as defined by an environmental California Healthy Places Index score of 50 percent or lower.
(C)People with disabilities.
(D)People identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.
(E)Individuals with limited English proficiency.
SECTION 1.
Section 127345 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read:127345.
As used in this article, the following terms have the following meanings:SEC. 2.
Article 3 (commencing with Section 127370) is added to Chapter 2 of Part 2 of Division 107 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:Article 3. The Medical Equity Disclosure Act
127370.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(g)
(h)The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is a widely used set of performance measures in the managed care industry across all payor categories. HEDIS incorporated physician-level measures in 2006. HEDIS measures of physician quality examine effectiveness of care, access to care, and service use, and can be used to assess access
and quality at the individual, practice, or medical group level for both adult and pediatric populations.
(j)In addition, health systems must examine and address
the ways in which they contribute to racial health inequities beyond health care provision in their own workforces. This is especially true given 45 percent of the direct care workforce is composed of Black and Indigenous women and women of color. It is the policy of the State of California to promote an equitable and inclusive health care workforce. It will serve this policy for health systems to disclose data on employment and pay disparities, and to develop and share publicly their plans for addressing those employment disparities.
(k)
127371.
As used in this article:127372.
(a) A hospital shall prepare an annual equity report. The equity report shall include an analysis of health status and access to care disparities for patients on the basis of age, sex, race, ethnicity, language, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and payor.(C)Healthy living.
(F)Care affordability.
(G)