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(a) Each hospital designated by the department as a critical access hospital, and certified as such by the Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services under the federal Medicare rural hospital flexibility program, shall be eligible for supplemental payments for Medi-Cal covered outpatient services rendered to Medi-Cal eligible persons.
(b) Payments made pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be contingent upon receipt of federal financial participation, and shall be limited by the appropriation in the annual Budget Act for the nonfederal share of these payments. Supplemental payments shall be apportioned among critical access hospitals based upon their number of Medi-Cal outpatient visits.
(c) Nothing in this section shall be interpreted as meaning that a critical access hospital is not a general acute care hospital.
(d) The department shall promptly seek any necessary federal approvals for the implementation of this section. If necessary to obtain federal approval, the department may, for federal purposes, limit implementation of this section to those payments that are allowable expenses under Title XIX of the federal Social Security Act (Subchapter 19 (commencing with Section 1396) of Chapter 7 of Title 42 of the United States Code). If federal approval is not obtained for implementation of this section, this section shall become inoperative.
(e) The department may adopt emergency regulations in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code) to implement this section. One initial adoption of the emergency regulations and one readoption of the initial regulations shall be deemed to be an emergency and necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, or general welfare. Initial emergency regulations and the first readoption of those regulations shall be exempt from review by the Office of Administrative Law. The emergency regulations authorized by this section shall be submitted to the Office of Administrative Law for filing with the Secretary of State and publication in the California Code of Regulations, and shall remain in effect for no more than 180 days. If the department adopts emergency regulations pursuant to this section, the department shall seek prior input from representatives of the hospital industry, including the California Healthcare Association.