Legislative Update From CMA (August 17, 2010)
Friday, August 13, 2010, was the last day for fiscal committees to hear and report bills to the Assembly or Senate floors. Bills that did not make it out of policy or fiscal committees are dead for the 2009–10 session unless legislative leadership issues a rule waiver. All other active bills will need to pass off of the floor by August 31, 2010, to be eligible to be sent to the governor's desk. The next two weeks will be a flurry of activity in the State Capitol, with final amendments, political negotiations and horse-trading, last-minute gut and amends, and dramatic late-night floor sessions. CMA's Government Relations department will be right in the middle of it all.
CMA-sponsored bill AB 2470 (De La Torre), which protects patients from unlawful rescission of health insurance, successfully cleared the Senate Appropriations Suspense File on Thursday. It joins other federal healthcare reform implementation bills, which fared well through the fiscal committees. These include the two legislative vehicles to establish the Health Insurance Exchange in California, AB 1602 (J. Perez) and SB 900 (Alquist/Steinberg), and market reform and coverage expansion bills, AB 1825 (De La Torre), AB 2244 (Feuer), SB 1088 (Price), and SB 890 (Alquist).
Two out of the three rate review / rate regulation bills — AB 2578 (Jones), and SB 1163 (Leno) — made it out of committee. The third rate review bill, AB 591 (De La Torre), was held on suspense. Intensive, behind-the-scenes stakeholder battles concerning these bills continue, with CMA front and center to help ensure that federal health reform is not implemented in a way that could be injurious to physicians and their patients.
As of Monday, August 16, 2010, the state budget will be 47 days late, more than halfway to the 2008 record of 86 days overdue. The governor's office estimates that the fiscal crisis worsens at a rate of $52.3 million dollars per day. We will continue to follow the budget negotiations and provide updates as they occur. On August 10, 2010, Congress provided a lifeline for beleaguered states overburdened with Medicaid payments by passing legislation extending increases in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) program for the first half of 2011. This will bring approximately $1.3 billion into California, unfortunately about $700 million less than what was expected. Budget followers are bracing for new and unpopular proposals to fill that gap. When the budget will be passed is still anyone's guess.
August 31, 2010, at midnight is the deadline for any bill to complete the legislative process. With hundreds of bills racing toward that goal, CMA's Government Relations team is gearing up for two weeks of intense advocacy on behalf of physicians in California.
For more information on these and other bills of interest to physicians, see CMA's Legislative Hot List.