California Ushered In Host of New Health Care Laws on Jan. 1
Although California legislators spent most of 2009 focused on the state budget deficit, they passed a number of health care-related bills, including several that took effect on Jan. 1, 2010, Payers & Providers reports.
Those bills include:
- AB 108, by Assembly member Mary Hayashi (D-San Leandro), which prohibits insurers from rescinding an individual health insurance policy because of fraud after the policy has been in effect for 24 months;
- AB 1083, by Assembly Speaker-elect John Perez (D-Los Angeles), which requires hospitals to conduct annual reviews of their security plans; and
- AB 1383, by Assembly member Dave Jones (D-Sacramento), which would permit a new hospital fee to help draw down federal matching funds for Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program. The plan must get federal approval before the fee takes effect.