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Legislative Update June 2, 2008

Author: Kathy Lynch, Lynn Rolston

Legislative Update

By Kathy Lynch, Vice President of Government Affairs

June 2, 2008

As Lynn mentioned in her CEO message last week, I have decided to leave the sunshine and GREAT wine for the humidity of the East Coast or as those from NY like to say…the Right Coast! I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at CPhA and thank all of you for providing me the opportunity to represent you in Sacramento. It has been an absolute privilege. I’ll provide my contact information before I leave. More to come…

As Lynn also mentioned, Jim Gross and I attended the hearings held last Friday by the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review and the Assembly Budget Subcommittee No.1 on Health and Human Services. Both the Senate Committee and the Assembly Subcommittee decided to have a discussion regarding the Governor's ten percent Medi-Cal rate reduction. The Senate Committee discussed the provider cuts as a whole and voted in favor of restoring the Medi-Cal Rate Reduction to all providers by 5%. The Assembly Subcommittee put providers in four separate categories. With respect to pharmacy, the Assembly Subcommittee voted to restore 3-4% of the cut to pharmacy after they determine the amount of money needed from each category of provider to backfill money for the public hospitals.

Due to the different actions taken by the Senate Committee and the Assembly Subcommittee, the issue will now go to the Conference Committee. It is anticipated that the Conference Committee will commence their discussions the second week in June. The ten percent cut to Medi-Cal providers was adopted by the Legislature in February and was not originally scheduled to be reviewed by the Budget Committees in their normal course. We are very happy that the Senate Committee and the Assembly Subcommittee recognized the importance of this issue and decided to bring it up for discussion during their hearings last week.

If the Conference Committee reaches a consensus on this item they would need to approve trailer bill language, which would in part, repeal/supersede the bills adopted in February that instituted the ten percent cut to providers. Such action would be part of the budget, which at this time is not expected to be finalized until early fall. Just to be clear, this means that we should not declare a victory but that we should be very proud of the progress we have all made to date and reaffirm our commitment to continue the fight against the implementation of the ten percent cut to providers. It is also important to understand that any action taken during this budget process will NOT prevent the ten percent cut to Medi-Cal provider reimbursement from being implemented on July 1.

Below please find an update on the bills which were heard last week.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at klynch@cpha.com or (916) 779-1400.

Thank you very much for your continued support!

Kathy

Update on Bills Heard Last Week

AB 2058 (Levine) Recycling: Plastic Carryout Bags: Paper Bags

CPhA Position: Neutral/Watch

AB 2058 passed the Assembly Floor and now heads to the Senate.

To read the full text of this bill click or cut and paste:

http://www.legislature.ca.gov/cgi-bin/port-postquery?bill_number=ab_2058&sess=CUR&house=B&author=levine

AB 2425 (Coto) Public Health: Water Quality: Pharmaceuticals

CPhA Position: Neutral/Watch