October 6, 2016

Medi-Cal

SB 815 (Hernandez) Medi-Cal: demonstration project: Support – Signed. Implements the PRIME and Global Payment Program portions of California’s new Medicaid Section 1115 “Medi-Cal 2020” Waiver. The new waiver – approved on December 30, 2015 – builds on the successes California has achieved in expanding coverage, transforming care, and improving health outcomes.

AB 1568 (Bonta) Medi-Cal: demonstration project: Support – Signed. Implements the Whole Person Care and Dental Transformation portions of California’s new Medicaid Section 1115 “Medi-Cal 2020” Waiver. The new waiver – approved on December 30, 2015 – builds on the successes California has achieved in expanding coverage, transforming care, and improving health outcomes.

ABX2 1 (Thurmond) Developmental services: Medi-Cal: funding: Support – Signed.  Provides a $300 million investment in the community-based developmental services system. It also forgives retroactive payments for rural and critical access skilled nursing facilities that are associated with general acute care hospitals.

Homelessness

AB 1618 (Committee on Budget) Mental Health Services: Support – Signed. Outlines the eligibility and criteria for counties to participate in the No Place Like Home Program. The No Place Like Home Program would leverage up to $2 billion in funding to build or refurbish permanent supportive housing for homeless individuals living with a serious mental illness.

AB 1628 (Committee on Budget) No Place Like Home Program: financing: Support – Signed.  Contains financing portion of the new No Place Like Home Program. The bill, which was approved by the Senate and Assembly, outlines the path for diverting Mental Health Services Act funds to finance and repay up to $2 billion in bonds. The proceeds from those bonds will be available to counties for building or refurbishing permanent supportive housing units for those who are chronically homeless and living with mental illness.

Mental Health

SCR 131 (Beall) National Mental Health Awareness Month: Support – Signed. Encourages Californians to work together to enhance public awareness of mental illness.

AB 59 (Waldron) Mental health services: assisted outpatient treatment: Support – Signed. Extends the Laura’s Law sunset date by five years, from 2017 to 2022.

AB 1836 (Maienschein). Mental health: referral of conservatees: Neutral – Signed. Works to ensure that those who may be gravely disabled due to serious mental illness or alcoholism are assessed by the county mental health plan and, if warrants, linked with the appropriate level of community mental health services. CSAC originally opposed the bill, but was able to adopt a neutral position after working with the author and sponsors to address concerns regarding the role of a Probate Judge in referring a probate conservatee for mental health treatment.

Tobacco

ABX2 7 (Stone) Smoking in the workplace: Support if Amended – Signed. Closes loopholes in smoke-free workplace laws. CSAC sought amendments clarifying that the requirements of the bill would only apply to owner-operated business where there is interaction with the public.

ABX2 9 (Thurmond) Tobacco use programs: Support – Signed. Closes existing school tobacco regulation loopholes and expands eligibility for Tobacco Use Prevention and Education program funding to charter schools.

ABX2 11 (Nazarian) Cigarette and tobacco product licensing: fees and funding: Support – Signed. Establishes an annual Board of Equalization tobacco licensing fee program, similar to how alcohol is licensed.

SBX2 5 (Leno) Electronic Cigarettes: Support – Signed.
Adds e-cigarettes and vaping products to the existing definitions of tobacco products.

SBX2 7 (Hernandez) Tobacco Products: minimum legal age: Support – Signed. Increases the age of sale for tobacco products from 18 years of age to 21.

ABX2 10 (Bloom) Local taxes: authorization: cigarettes and tobacco products: Support – Vetoed. Allows a county to impose a tax on the privilege of distributing cigarettes and tobacco products.

Children’s Services

AB 1299 (Ridley-Thomas) Medi-Cal: specialty mental health services: foster children: Support – Signed. This bill will work to ensure timely mental health services for foster or probation youth , regardless of their location, with little or no state cost. CSAC supported AB 1299 after nearly two years of working with the author and sponsors to arrive at this policy solution.

AB 1702 (Stone) Juveniles: dependent children: reunification services: Support – Signed. Recognizes a gap in dependency law related to family reunification efforts by adding a situation where the parent has knowingly participated in or permitted the sexual exploitation of the child to the list of reasons that a court may forego reunifications. Providing this protection to foster youth who have suffered from sexual exploitation at the hands of their parents or guardians is crucial.

AB 1997 (Stone) Foster Care: Support in Concept – Signed. This bill is intended as technical implementation legislation for last year’s landmarks AB 403, the Continuum of Care Reform.

ACR 139 (Thurmond) Child Abuse Prevention Month: Support – Signed. Encourages Californians to work together to support child abuse prevention activities in their communities and schools.

ACR 179 (Cooley) Foster Care Month: Support – Signed. States California’s commitment to working with federal and local governments to improve the lives and futures of all children and youth touched by the child welfare system.

ACR 204 (Quirk) Court Adoption and Permanency Month: Support – Signed. Encourages California’s courts and local communities to work together to expedite and maintain permanency for former foster children.

SB 906 (Beall) Public postsecondary education: priority enrollment systems: Support – Signed. Removes the sunset provision from the requirement (or request in the University of California’s case) that the California State University and community college districts grant priority registration for foster youth or former foster youth.

SB 1336 (Jackson). Dependent children: investigation: relatives: Neutral – Signed. After working with the author and stakeholders to address CSAC’s concerns on controversial last minute amendments to SB 1336, CSAC adopted a neutral position on the version of the bill that the Governor ultimately signed. SB 1336 was originally proposed as a reworking of current law to strike references to the consideration of placing a child in foster care with relatives at the time of the next placement change, which raised both policy and workload concerns.

AB 1838 (Ting) Foster care: infant supplement: Support – Vetoed. Would have made a pregnant minor or nonminor dependent eligible for the infant supplement under Kin-GAP for a specified period of time before the expected data of birth. The Governor’s veto message said this would be more appropriated addressed through the budget process.

SB 253 (Monning). Juveniles: Psychotropic Medication: Concerns – Vetoed. Would have required a court to determine that the administration of psychotropic medications is in the best interest of a dependent child or delinquent child in foster care before authorizing an order to administer psychotropic medications.

SB 1446 (Mitchell) Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment Program: trauma screening: Neutral – Vetoed. An earlier version of the bill would have provided that child abuse and neglect or removal of the child from the parent or legal guardian by a child welfare agency be prima facie evidence of trauma for purposes of conducting a screening under the EPSDT Program. After gathering more information and amendments were made to the bill, CSAC adopted a neutral position on the bill.

SCR 140 (Cannella) Foster Care Awareness Month: Support – Signed.  States California’s commitment to working with federal and local governments to improve the lives and futures of all children and youth touched by the child welfare system.

Human Services

AB 2568 (Atkins) County integrated health and human services program: Support – Signed. Authorizes San Diego County, upon approval of the county board of supervisors and the California Health and Human Services Agency, to operate an integrated and comprehensive health and human services agency.

SB 947 (Pan) Public assistance: personal interviews: Support – Signed. Works to modernize the CalWORKs application and ensures a more efficient process for families in need of CalWORKs benefits by allowing county human services agency or state hospital staff to conduct the required persona eligibility interview via telephone or electronically.

SB 1212 (Hueso). 2-1-1 information and referral network: Support – Signed. Authorizes the California Public Utilities Commission to spend up to $1,500,000 to facilitate the expansion of 2-1-1 services into counties that currently do not have 2-1-1 services.

HR 33 (Atkins) Relative to the California Earned Income Tax Credit: Support – Signed. Declares January 22, 2016, as California Earned Income Tax Credit Awareness Day.

HR 40 (Eggman) Relative to Social Work Month: Support –Signed. Proclaims March 2016 as “Social Work Month” in California. H.R. 40 also encourages all Californians take part in March “Social Work Paves the Way for Change” events throughout California and commends the work of social workers throughout the state.

AB 2448 (Burke) CalWORKs: welfare-to-work: education: Support – Vetoed.  Would have reduced barriers to high school graduation for CalWORKs participants by targeting enrollees who need more than 6 months to achieve high school equivalency by stopping their time clocks for up to 12 months.

Health Services

SB 867 (Roth) Emergency Medical Services: Support – Signed. Extends the sunset date for local Maddy Emergency Medical Services Funds (Maddy Funds) to January 1, 2017, to continue to assist hospitals and emergency physicians with the costs of treating uninsured patients, support local emergency services, and contribute to pediatric trauma care.

SBX2 2 (Hernandez) Medi-Cal: managed care organization tax: Support – Signed. The main piece of the MCO fix package of bills. The tiered tax proposal in this bill is the product of months of negotiation between the Brown Administration, health plans—including local and county-run health plans—and the Legislature. It restructures the MCO tax in a way that meets federal standards. It raises between $1.3 and $1.7 billion annually, and will be in effect for three years, until 2019.