L.A. Area Chamber Health Care Team Gears Up for ACCESS Sacramento, May 19-20

by Samantha Beasley, Senior Public Policy Manager, L.A. Area Chamber

Since last December, the L.A. Area Chamber’s Health Care Council has been closely monitoring the health care legislation under discussion in Sacramento. From insuring the undocumented, increasing Medi-Cal rates, updating charity care requirements, transparency in the creation of specialty drugs and allowances for nurse practitioners, we’ve seen quite an active start to the 2015 legislative session.

Looking ahead to our annual ACCESS Sacramento advocacy trip (May 19-20), now two weeks away, below is an update on a few of our priority bills.

Chamber Supported Legislation

• AB 366 (Bonta), to raise Medi-Cal provider rates and repeal Medi-Cal rate reductions made in 2011, unanimously passed the Assembly Committee on Health and has been referred to the Assembly Committee on Appropriations.

• AB 463 (Chui), the Pharmaceutical Cost Transparency Act, would require pharmaceutical companies to publicly disclose the details on the factors that go into pricing expensive prescription drugs, including the costs of marketing, research and development. This bill is now a two-year bill and will be heard again in 2016.

• SB 147 (Hernandez), would implement a three-year pilot program as allowed under the Affordable Care Act for federally qualified health centers by developing an alternative payment methodology. It passed the Senate Committee on Health and currently sits in Appropriations on suspense.

• SB 323 (Hernandez), would allow nurse practitioners in California to practice without physician supervision under certain circumstances. It has passed the Senate Committees on Health and Appropriations and now heads to the Senate floor.

Chamber Opposed Legislation

• SB 346 (Wieckowski), addresses hospital charity care and could significantly alter the community benefit tax status of not-for-profit hospitals. It failed to pass out of the Senate Committee on Health.

• SB 483 (Beall), would provide more state oversight of hospital observation units and limit patient observation status at hospitals to 24 hours. The bill would also apply state nurse-to-patient ratios to observation units. It passed the Senate Committee on Health and sits in the Appropriations Committee.

We’re also anxiously watching SB 4 (Lara), which would extend health care coverage to undocumented immigrants at an expense of more than $700 million annually to the state. In mid-April, the state Senate Health Committee voted 7-0 to advance the measure. Yet on May 4, the Senate Appropriations Committee referred SB 4 to its suspense file, until it can be reviewed against the state FY 2015-2016 budget. Last session, lawmakers failed to find funding to cover a similar bill that was (previously) estimated to cost the state $1.3 billion annually.

If you haven’t already signed up to join our delegation on May 19-20, please do so here. You can also reach me with any questions at [email protected] or (213) 580-7558.