BILL NUMBER: SB 142 INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Senator Maldonado FEBRUARY 11, 2009 An act to amend Section 1501 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to health care facilities. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 142, as introduced, Maldonado. Community care facilities. Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of community care facilities, as defined, by the State Department of Social Services. This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to these provisions. 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 1501 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to read: 1501. (a) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that there is an urgent need to establish a coordinated and comprehensive statewide service system of quality community care for mentally ill, developmentally and physically disabled, and children and adults who require care or services by a facility or organization issued a license or special permit pursuant to this chapter. (b) Therefore, the Legislature declares it is the intent of the state to develop policies and programs designed to: (1) insuredo all of the following: (1) Ensure a level of care and services in the communitywhichthat is equal to or better than that provided by the state hospitals; (2) assure. (2) Ensure that all people who require them are provided with the appropriate range of social rehabilitative, habilitative and treatment services, including residential and nonresidential programs tailored to their needs; (3) protect. (3) Protect the legal and human rights of a person in or receiving services from a community care facility; (4) insure. (4) Ensure continuity of care between the medical-health elements and the supportive care-rehabilitation elements of California's health systems; (5) insure. (5) Ensure that facilities providing community care are adequate, safe , and sanitary; (6) assure. (6) Ensure that rehabilitative and treatment services are provided at a reasonable cost; (7) assure that. (7) Ensure that state payments for community care services are based on a flexible rate schedule varying according to type and cost of care and services provided; (8) encourage. (8) Encourage the utilization of personnel from state hospitals and the development of training programs to improve the quality of staff in community care facilities; and (9). (9) Ensure the quality of community care facilities by evaluating the care and services provided and furnishing incentives to upgrade their quality.