Medi-Cal.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income persons are provided with health care services. Under existing law, for certain hospitals that receive Medi-Cal reimbursement from the department and that are not under contract with the department pursuant to specified existing law, interim payments and cost report settlements for inpatient hospital services provided on and after July 1, 2008, are reduced by 10%, as specified. Existing law revises the amount of these payments, beginning on October 1, 2008, pursuant to a specified formula. Existing law exempts certain small and rural hospitals and certain open health facility planning areas from this revised formula. Existing law, for purposes of interim payments, specifically provides that open health facility planning areas with 3 or more hospitals with licensed general acute care beds are not exempt from this revised formula. Existing law, for purposes of the cost report settlements, specifically provides that open health facility planning areas with more than 3 hospitals with licensed general acute care beds are not exempt from this revised formula. This bill would revise both of the above provisions to prohibit a state-owned or state-operated hospital from being included in determining the number of hospitals in an open health facility planning area. This bill would revise the cost report settlement provision by requiring that an open health facility planning area have 3 or more specified hospitals, instead of more than 3 specified hospitals. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.