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SB-487 Telephone services: high cost areas: transfer payments.(2001-2002)

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Amended  IN  Senate  April 16, 2001
Amended  IN  Senate  May 02, 2001
Amended  IN  Assembly  February 04, 2002
Amended  IN  Assembly  June 11, 2002
Amended  IN  Assembly  June 25, 2002
Amended  IN  Assembly  August 23, 2002
Amended  IN  Assembly  August 29, 2002

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2001–2002 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Bill
No. 487

Introduced  by  Senator Costa
 (Coauthor(s): Assembly Member Cardoza, Cogdill)

February 22, 2001

An act to add Sections 1317.05 and 1317.07 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to health facilities. An act relating to telecommunications, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SB 487, as amended, Costa. Hospitals: emergency rooms Telephone services: high cost areas: transfer payments.
(1) Existing law creates the High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee and the High-Cost Fund-B Administrative Committee to advise the Public Utilities Commission regarding programs to provide for transfer payments to certain telephone corporations providing services in high cost areas and to carry out the programs under the commission’s authority. Existing law creates the California High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund and the High-Cost Fund-B Administrative Committee Fund. Moneys in the funds may be expended, as specified, upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act.
This bill would appropriate $3,100,000 from the California High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund to the commission, for the purpose of transferring funds to eligible telephone corporations providing services in high cost areas.
(2) The bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Existing law imposes various requirements with respect to the licensing by the State Department of Health Services of health facilities, including hospitals. Existing law requires each hospital to have in effect a written discharge planning policy and process, with specified contents. Violation of these provisions is a crime.

This bill would require a hospital that maintains an emergency room, with the exception of an acute care hospital operated by the Department of Corrections, to provide to uninsured patients, and make available to insured patients, upon discharge, brochures or pamphlets that inform the patient about alternatives to emergency room care. This bill would require the department, in consultation with local hospitals and county health departments, to develop a model brochure or pamphlet that hospitals may use to meet this requirement and to distribute the model brochure or pamphlet to these hospitals.

By changing the definition of a crime, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: YES   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

Section 1317.05 is added to the Health and

SECTION 1.

 (a) There is hereby appropriated from the California High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund to the Public Utilities Commission, three million one hundred thousand dollars ($3,100,000) for the purpose of transferring funds to telephone corporations providing services in high cost areas and authorized to receive these funds pursuant to Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 270) of Part 1 of Division 1 of the Public Utilities Code.
(b) No fee or assessment may be increased by the Public Utilities Commission as a result of the transfer made pursuant to subdivision (a).

SEC. 2.

 This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
The authority to appropriate money from the California High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund in the Budget Act for fiscal year 2001-2002 was underestimated due to an accounting misunderstanding. Money for the payments due to be transferred to telephone corporations was collected and deposited into these funds, but authorization to transfer the moneys fell short of the amount due to be paid out by the end of the fiscal year. The California High-Cost Fund-A Administrative Committee Fund, among other things, provides funding for basic telephone services to state residents who would not otherwise receive these necessary services. In order to provide sufficient revenues for the telephone corporations authorized to receive these funds pursuant to Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 270) of Part 1 of Division 1 of the Public Utilities Code to continue providing services in high cost areas, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.

Safety Code, to read:

1317.05.

(a)In addition to any other applicable discharge requirements set forth in this chapter, any hospital that maintains an emergency room shall provide to uninsured patients, and make available to insured patients, upon discharge, brochures or pamphlets that inform the patient about alternatives to emergency room care, including, but not limited to the following:

(1)Available public insurance programs, including the Medi-Cal program, the Healthy Families Program, and the Child Health and Disability Prevention Program.

(2)Information about charity care programs that assist patients in paying for medical care.

(3)Any clinics or health professionals in the area that provide free care or low-cost health care.

(4)Any urgent care facilities in the area.

(b)This section shall not apply to a general acute care hospital operated by the Department of Corrections.

SEC. 2.Section 1317.07 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:
1317.07.

(a)The State Department of Health Services, in consultation with local hospitals and county health departments, shall develop a model brochure or pamphlet that hospitals may use to meet the requirements of Section 1317.05. The State Department of Health Services shall consider organizing the brochures or pamphlets by county, where appropriate.

(b)Each brochure or pamphlet shall be accessible and comprehensible to consumers, and shall be written in languages, in addition to English, that are understandable to the population served by the hospital. The department shall develop translations of each brochure or pamphlet.

(c)The department shall distribute the model brochure or pamphlet to each hospital subject to Section 1317.05.
SEC. 3.

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.