Bill Text: CA SB485 | 2011-2012 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act:
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-01-31 - Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [SB485 Detail]
Download: California-2011-SB485-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: SB 485 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JANUARY 4, 2012
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 14, 2011
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 24, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Senator Hernandez
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
An act to add Section 14134.7 to the Welfare and
Institutions Code, amend Sections 130302, 130305,
130307, 130316, and 130317 of, and to repeal Sections 130304 and
130309 of, the Health and Safety Code, relating to
health facilities health care coverage .
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 485, as amended, Hernandez. Health facilities:
emergency units. Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act: implementation.
Existing law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
Implementation Act of 2001, provides for the Office of HIPAA
Implementation in the California Health and Human Services Agency to
assume statewide leadership and perform related activities for the
implementation of the federal Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act (HIPAA). Under existing law, the director of the
office is required to establish an advisory committee to obtain
information on statewide activities to implement HIPAA that is
required to meet, at a minimum, twice each year. Existing law
required that, during 2002, state entities subject to HIPAA assess
its impact on their operations and that the office report that
information to the Legislature. Under existing law, the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Implementation Act of 2001
will be repealed on January 1, 2013.
This bill would extend the operation of the Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Implementation Act of 2001 to January
1, 2014, and would transfer responsibility for the statewide
implementation of HIPAA to the Office of Health Information Integrity
in the California Health and Human Services Agency. The bill would
delete the requirement of 2 annual meetings for the advisory
committee, providing for meetings as required for coordination
purposes. The bill would also delete the assessment and reporting
requirements for state entities and the office, which were required
to be completed in 2002.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is
administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and
under which qualified low-income persons receive health care
services. Existing law provides for the licensure of health
facilities, including general acute care hospitals.
This bill would require the department to establish a pilot
program to facilitate collaboration between an available and
accessible provider of nonemergency medical care and a general acute
care hospital to provide a Medi-Cal beneficiary or patient who lacks
health insurance with an alternative to the use of the emergency unit
of a general acute care hospital for care and services if the
Medi-Cal beneficiary or patient, after a medical screening, is
determined by a physician and surgeon or other health care provider,
as specified, to not have an emergency medical condition and the
Medi-Cal beneficiary or patient is provided the specified
information, in writing, before discharge from the emergency unit.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 130302 of the Health
and Safety Code is amended to read:
130302. For the purposes of this division, the following
definitions apply:
(a) "Director" means the Director of the Office of HIPAA
Implementation Health Information Integrity .
(b) "HIPAA" means the federal Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act.
(c) "Office" means the Office of HIPAA Implementation
Health Information Integrity established
by the office of the Governor in the
California Health and Human Services Agency pursuant to
Section 130200 .
(d) "State entities" means all state departments, boards,
commissions, programs, and other organizational units of the
executive branch of state government.
SEC. 2. Section 130304 of the Health
and Safety Code is repealed.
130304. The office shall be under the supervision and control of
a director, known as the Director of the Office of HIPAA
Implementation, who shall be appointed by, and serve at the pleasure
of, the Secretary of the Health and Human Services Agency.
SEC. 3. Section 130305 of the Health
and Safety Code is amended to read:
130305. The For purposes of implementing
this division, the office shall be staffed, at a minimum, with
the following personnel:
(a) Legal counsel to perform activities that may include, but are
not limited to, determining the application of federal law pertaining
to HIPAA.
(b) Staff with expertise in the rules promulgated by HIPAA.
(c) Staff to oversee the development of training curricula and
tools and to modify the curricula and tools as required by the state'
s ongoing HIPAA compliance effort.
(d) Information technology staff.
(e) Staff, as necessary, to coordinate and monitor the progress
made by all state entities in HIPAA implementation.
(f) Administrative staff, as necessary.
SEC. 4. Section 130307 of the Health
and Safety Code is amended to read:
130307. The director shall establish an advisory committee to
obtain information on statewide HIPAA implementation
activities, which shall meet at a minimum of two times per year.
activities. The committee shall meet as required to
coordinate statewide HIPAA implementation activities with other
health care stakeholders. It is the intent of the Legislature
that the committee's membership include representatives from county
government, from consumers, and from a broad range of provider
groups, such as physicians and surgeons, clinics, hospitals,
pharmaceutical companies, health care service plans, disability
insurers, long-term care facilities, facilities for the
developmentally disabled, and mental health providers. The director
shall invite key stakeholders from the federal government, the
Judicial Council, health care advocates, nonprofit health care
organizations, public health systems, and the private sector to
provide information to the committee.
SEC. 5. Section 130309 of the Health
and Safety Code is repealed.
130309. (a) All state entities subject to HIPAA shall complete an
assessment, in a form specified by the office, prior to January 1,
2002, to determine the impact of HIPAA on their operations. The
office shall report the statewide results of the assessment to the
appropriate policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature on or
before May 15, 2002.
(b) Other state entities shall cooperate with the office to
determine whether they are subject to HIPAA, including, but not
limited to, providing a completed assessment as prescribed by the
office.
SEC. 6. Section 130316 of the Health
and Safety Code is amended to read:
130316. Any funds appropriated for the purpose of this division
that remain unexpended or unencumbered on January 1, 2013,
2014, shall revert to the General Fund on that
date unless a statute that is enacted before January 1,
2013, 2014, extends the provisions of this
division.
SEC. 7. Section 130317 of the Health and
Safety Code is amended to read:
130317. This division shall become inoperative on January 1,
2013, 2014, and as of that date is
repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before
January 1, 2013, 2014, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.
SECTION 1. Section 14134.7 is added to the
Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:
14134.7. (a) The department shall establish a pilot program to
facilitate collaboration between an available and accessible provider
of nonemergency medical care and a general acute care hospital,
within two geographic locations, to provide a Medi-Cal beneficiary, a
patient who lacks health insurance, or both, with an alternative to
the use of the emergency unit of a general acute care hospital for
care and services if the Medi-Cal beneficiary or patient who lacks
health insurance, after a medical screening, is determined by a
physician and surgeon or other health care provider who acts within
his or her scope of practice to not have an emergency medical
condition and the Medi-Cal beneficiary or patient who lacks health
insurance is provided the following information, in writing, before
the patient is discharged from the emergency unit:
(1) The name and address of an available and accessible provider
of nonemergency medical care.
(2) A referral from the general acute care hospital if necessary
to coordinate the scheduling of treatment.
(b) The department shall submit any necessary application to the
federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for a waiver to
implement the pilot project described in this section. The department
shall determine the form of waiver most appropriate to achieve the
purposes of this section. The waiver request shall be included in any
waiver application submitted within 12 months after the effective
date of this section, or shall be submitted as an independent
application within that time period. After federal approval is
secured, the department shall implement the waiver within 12 months
of the date of approval.
(c) The department shall develop a request for proposal process
for available and accessible providers of nonemergency medical care
and general acute care hospitals that want to participate in the
pilot project. The department also shall develop a timeline and
process for monitoring and evaluating the pilot project and provide
this timeline and process to the appropriate fiscal and policy
committees of the Legislature.
(d) For purposes of this section, "an available and accessible
provider of nonemergency medical care" includes the office of a
physician and surgeon, health clinic, community health center, and
hospital outpatient department, provided that the provider of
nonemergency medical care is able to diagnose or treat
contemporaneously within the same amount of time that a physician
within the emergency unit of a general acute care hospital would have
taken to provide the same nonemergency services.
