15916. (Amended by Stats. 2012, Ch. 23, Sec. 120.)

(a) It is the intent of the Legislature that the State Department of Health Care Services and all other departments take all appropriate steps to fully maximize and claim all available expenditures for Designated State Health Programs listed in the Special Terms and Conditions of California’s Bridge to Reform Section 1115(a) Demonstration under the safety net care pool (SNCP) for an applicable demonstration year.

(b) For the purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) “California’s Bridge to Reform Section 1115(a) Demonstration” means the Section 1115(a) Medicaid demonstration project, No. 11-W-00193/9, as approved by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), effective for the period of November 1, 2010, through October 31, 2015.

(2) “Demonstration year” means a specific period of time during California’s Bridge to Reform Section 1115(a) Wavier as identified in the Special Terms and Conditions. “Demonstration year” may be denominated in yearly increments, which correspond with the yearly increments identified in the Special Terms and Conditions.

(3) “Designated public hospital” has the meaning given in subdivision (d) of Section 14166.1.

(4) “Excess certified public expenditures” means the amount of allowable uncompensated care expenditures reported and certified for the applicable demonstration year under Section 14166.8 by designated public hospitals (DPHs), including the governmental entities with which they are affiliated, that is in excess of the amount necessary to draw the maximum amount of federal funding for DPHs for uncompensated care under the safety net care pool and for disproportionate share hospital payments without regard to subdivision (c) or to the amount authorized pursuant to paragraph (5).

(5) “Reserved SNCP funds for DSHP” means the amount of SNCP uncompensated care funds used to fund expenditures for the Designated State Health Programs, as specified in the Special Terms and Conditions of California’s Bridge to Reform Section 1115(a) Demonstration.

(6) “Redirected SNCP funds” means the amount of federal funding available for a specified demonstration year that would otherwise be restricted for expenditures associated with the Health Care Coverage Initiative (HCCI) program, for which there are insufficient HCCI expenditures to draw the federal funds and which CMS has authorized to be available for uncompensated care expenditures under the safety net care pool in either the demonstration year for which the funds were initially reserved or a subsequent demonstration year.

(7) “Safety net care pool” or “SNCP” means the federal funds available under the Medi-Cal Hospital/Uninsured Care Demonstration Project and the successor demonstration project, California’s Bridge to Reform, to ensure continued government support for the provision of health care services to uninsured populations.

(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the state shall annually seek authority from CMS under the Special Terms and Conditions of California’s Bridge to Reform Section 1115(a) Demonstration to redirect to the uncompensated care category within the SNCP the portion of the restricted funds used to fund expenditures under the HCCI that will not be fully utilized by the end of the demonstration year for use in any demonstration year.

(d) Designated public hospitals may utilize the redirected SNCP funds described in subdivision (c) as follows:

(1) Designated public hospitals may opt to utilize excess certified public expenditures to claim the redirected SNCP funds.

(2) As a condition of exercising the option in paragraph (1), DPHs voluntarily agree that, up to the amount of redirected SNCP funds available, the excess certified public expenditures are to be allocated equally between the state and the DPHs, such that for every dollar of excess certified public expenditure used by the DPHs, the DPHs will voluntarily allow the state to use a corresponding excess certified public expenditure amount for claiming purposes.

(3) As a condition of receiving any of the funding in paragraph (2), DPHs voluntarily agree that, to the extent the state is unable to fully claim the maximum annual amount of reserved SNCP funds for DSHP, the excess certified public expenditures will be used to enable the state to receive total SNCP uncompensated care funds, in conjunction with its claims for expenditures for DSHP, to the maximum amount described in paragraph (5) of subdivision (b).

(e) Participation in the utilization of the excess certified public expenditures and redirected SNCP funds under this section is voluntary on the part of the DPHs for the purpose of all applicable federal laws.

(g) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, upon the receipt of a notice of disallowance or deferral from the federal government related to any certified public expenditures for uncompensated care incurred by DPHs that are used for federal claiming under the SNCP pursuant to California’s Bridge to Reform Section 1115(a) Demonstration after this section is implemented, and subject to the processes described in subdivisions (a) through (d) of Section 14166.24, the following shall apply with respect to the disallowance or deferral:

(1) The department and the DPH shall each be responsible for half of the repayment of the federal portion of any federal disallowance or deferral for the applicable demonstration year, up to the amount claimed and allocated pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (d) for that particular year.

(2) If there are additional disallowances or deferrals beyond those described in paragraph (1), the department shall be solely responsible for the repayment of the federal portion of any federal disallowance or deferral for the applicable demonstration year, up to the amount claimed and allocated pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (d) for that particular year.

(3) If there are additional disallowances or deferrals beyond those described in paragraphs (1) and (2) for the applicable demonstration year, the DPH shall be solely responsible for the repayment of the federal portion of all remaining federal disallowances or deferrals for that particular year.

(h) The department shall obtain federal approvals or waivers as necessary to implement this section and to obtain federal financial participation to the maximum extent permitted by federal law. This section shall be implemented only to the extent other federal financial participation is not jeopardized.