Bill Text: CA AB658 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: County jails: inmate health care services: rates.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2015-07-16 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 119, Statutes of 2015. [AB658 Detail]

Download: California-2015-AB658-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 658	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Wilk

                        FEBRUARY 24, 2015

   An act to amend Section 4011.10 of the Penal Code, relating to
health care.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 658, as introduced, Wilk. County jails: inmate health care
services: rates.
   Existing federal law provides for the federal Medicare Program,
which is a public health insurance program for persons 65 years of
age and older and specified persons with disabilities who are under
65 years of age.
   Existing law authorizes a county sheriff, police chief, or other
public agency that contracts for health care services, to contract
with providers of health care services for care to local law
enforcement patients. Existing law requires hospitals that do not
contract with the county sheriff, police chief, or other public
agency that contracts for health care services to provide health care
services to local law enforcement patients at a rate equal to 110%
of the hospital's actual costs according to the most recent Hospital
Annual Financial Data report issued by the Office of Statewide Health
Planning and Development, as calculated using a cost-to-charge
ratio.
   This bill would authorize, in the alternative, those costs to be
calculated according to the most recent approved cost-to-charge ratio
from the Medicare Program. The bill would also make technical
nonsubstantive changes.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 4011.10 of the Penal Code is amended to read:
   4011.10.  (a) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this
section to provide county sheriffs, chiefs of police, and directors
or administrators of local detention facilities with an incentive to
not engage in practices designed to avoid payment of legitimate
health care costs for the treatment or examination of persons
lawfully in their custody, and to promptly pay those costs as
requested by the provider of services. Further, it is the intent of
the Legislature to encourage county sheriffs, chiefs of police, and
directors or administrators of local detention facilities to bargain
in good faith when negotiating a service contract with hospitals
providing health care services.
   (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a county sheriff,
police chief or other public agency that contracts for health care
services, may contract with providers of health care services for
care to local law enforcement patients. Hospitals that do not
contract with the county sheriff, police chief, or other public
agency that contracts for health care services shall provide health
care services to local law enforcement patients at a rate equal to
110 percent of the hospital's actual costs according to the most
recent Hospital Annual Financial Data report issued by the Office of
Statewide Health Planning and Development, as calculated using a
cost-to-charge  ratio.   ratio, or according to
the most recent approved cost-to-charge ratio from the Medicare
Program. 
   (c) A county sheriff or police chief shall not request the release
of an inmate from custody for the purpose of allowing the inmate to
seek medical care at a hospital, and then immediately rearrest the
same individual upon discharge from the hospital, unless the hospital
determines this action would enable it to bill and collect from a
third-party payment source.
   (d) The California Hospital Association, the University of
California, the California State Sheriffs' Association  , 
and the California Police  Chiefs'   Chiefs
 Association shall, immediately upon enactment of this section,
convene the Inmate Health Care and Medical Provider Fair Pricing
Working Group. The working group shall consist of at least six
members from the California Hospital Association and the University
of California, and six members from the California State Sheriffs'
Association and the California Police  Chiefs'  
Chiefs  Association. Each organization should give great weight
and consideration to appointing members of the working group with
diverse geographic and demographic interests. The working group shall
meet as needed to identify and resolve industry issues that create
fiscal barriers to timely and affordable inmate health care. In
addition, the working group shall address issues including, but not
limited to, inmates being admitted for care and later rearrested and
any other fiscal barriers to hospitals being able to enter into fair
market contracts with public agencies. To the extent that the rate
provisions of this statute result in a disproportionate share of
local law enforcement patients being treated at any one hospital or
system of hospitals, the working group shall address this issue. No
reimbursement is required under this provision.
   (e) Nothing in this section shall require or encourage a hospital
or public agency to replace any existing arrangements that any city
police chief, county sheriff, or other public agency that contracts
for health care services for local law enforcement patients  has
with health care providers  .
   (f) An entity that provides ambulance or any other emergency or
nonemergency response service to a sheriff or police chief, and that
does not contract with their departments for that service, shall be
reimbursed for the service at the rate established by Medicare.
Neither the sheriff nor the police chief shall reimburse a provider
of any of these services that  their   his or
her  department has not contracted with at a rate that exceeds
the provider's reasonable and allowable costs, regardless of whether
the provider is located within or outside of California.
   (g) For the purposes of this section, "reasonable and allowable
costs" shall be defined in accordance with Part 413 of Title 42 of
the Code of Federal Regulations and federal Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services Publication Numbers  15.1  
15-1  and  15.2.   15-2. 
   (h) For purposes of this section, in those counties in which the
sheriff does not administer a jail facility, a director or
administrator of a local department of corrections established
pursuant to Section 23013 of the Government Code is the person who
may contract for services provided to jail inmates in the facilities
he or she administers in those counties.            
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