Special Populations
AB 2745 by Assembly member Dave Jones (D-Sacramento) on May 10 was amended to prohibit hospitals from developing policies to discharge homeless patients to other county health care service providers or not-for-profit social service providers without first informing the receiving agency. The amended bill also would require a hospital or group of hospitals to submit the protocols for review by county supervisors at least once every five years (Bill text, 5/10). The bill was re-referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee (Bill history, 5/10).
SB 1405 by Sen. Nell Soto (D-Ontario) on May 10 was approved by the Senate Health Committee (Bill history, 5/10). The bill would develop a task force to seek federal matching funds to pay for language assistance services for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families beneficiaries who have limited English-language skills. The task force would be required to make recommendations to the Legislature by July 1, 2009. All costs associated with the task force would be privately funded (Bill text, 5/4). Amendments made to the bill on May 4 did not change the nature of the legislation (StateNet, Subscription required).