Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions.

Under existing law, a hospital designated by the department as a critical access hospital, and certified as such by the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services under the federal Medicare rural hospital flexibility program, is eligible for supplemental payments for Medi-Cal covered outpatient services rendered to Medi-Cal eligible persons. Existing law conditions those payments on receipt of federal financial participation and an appropriation in the annual Budget Act for the nonfederal share of those payments, with supplemental payments being apportioned among critical access hospitals based on their number of Medi-Cal outpatient visits.

This bill, subject to appropriation and the availability of federal funding, would require the department to provide an annual supplemental payment, for services covered under Medi-Cal, to each critical access hospital that operates on an island that is located more than 10 miles offshore of the mainland coast of the state but is still within the jurisdiction of the state. The bill would specify the formula of the payment amount, which would be in addition to any supplemental payment described above.

This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for critical access hospitals operating on those islands.