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Senate Bill 168 (Speier – 2000)
Chapter 845, Statutes of 2000
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As enacted, Senate Bill 168 was a single section bill enacting only the provisions of Health and Safety Code section 1367.36, relating to health care service plans, immunizations for children and physician reimbursement. (See Exhibit #1g) Senator Speier introduced Senate Bill 168 on January 11, 1999 at the request of the American Academy of Pediatrics. (See Exhibit #1a)
Senate Bill 168 was assigned to the Senate Committee on Insurance and the Assembly Committee on Health where policy issues raised by the bill were considered. (See Exhibits #3 and #7) The fiscal ramifications of the bill were considered by the Senate Committee on Appropriations and the Assembly Committee on Appropriations. (See Exhibits #4 and #9) Five amendments were made to Senate Bill 168. (See Exhibits #1b through #1f and #2) Subsequent to legislative approval, Governor Gray Davis signed Senate Bill 168 on September 28, 2000, and it was recorded by the Secretary of State on September 29, 2000 as Chapter 845 of the Statutes of 2000. (See Exhibits #1g and #2)
At the time the bill was introduced and as considered through amendments of July 12, 1999, it proposed to affect various sections of the Insurance Code relating to children’s health insurance. (See Exhibit #1a-#1d) Amendments in the Assembly on June 6, 2000 gut the bill of these provisions, substituting the proposal to add Health and Safety Code section 1367.36. (See Exhibit #1e) The Office of Senate Floor Analyses summarizes the provisions of Senate Bill 168 as last amended August 30, 2000, in their Unfinished Business Analysis as follows:
Assembly Amendments delete Senate version of the bill which made various changes to the employer purchasing credit component of the Healthy Families Program and expands Healthy Families coverage to the entire family if it is cost-effective to do so.
The bill now generally prohibits a risk-based contract between a health care service plan and a physician or physician group that is issued, amended, delivered, or renewed in this state on or after January 1, 2001, from including a provision that requires a physician or a physician group to assume financial risk for the acquisition costs of required immunizations for children as a condition of accepting the risk-based contract. This bill provides that a physician or physician group shall not be required to assume financial risk for immunizations that are not part of the current contract. This bill required [sic] plans to reimburse physicians or physician groups for immunizations that are not part of the current contract at not less than a specified amount, until the contract is renegotiated. This bill prohibits a health care service plan from including the acquisition costs associated with required immunizations for children in the capitation rate of a physician who is individually capitated. This bill enacts other related provisions.
(See Exhibit #12, pages 1 and 2)