2021-2022

CHBRP generally analyzes introduced bills prior to their first Senate or Assembly Health Committee hearing. Completed CHBRP analyses (and the analyzed bill language) are available at http://chbrp.org/analysis/completed-analyses. As bills move through the Legislature, bills may be significantly amended, which may alter CHBRP’s projected impacts. The table, below, indicates the final version of each analyzed bill and the extent to which CHBRP’s analyses remain relevant. Final bill language and the bill status are available at http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/.

CHBRP’s analyses may still be of use after the legislative cycle concludes in order to inform future legislation, the implementation of analyzed legislation that is signed into law or included in California’s budget, and the ongoing evaluation of relevant health benefit mandates and repeals.

Bill Number	Bill Author	Bill Title	Current location	Bill amended since CHBRP analysis?	Which portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant?
AB 32	Aguiar-Curry	Telehealth	Approved by the Governor	Yes	For federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and rural health centers (RHCs), amendments would allow telephone only visits to be reimbursed at rates lower than live video or in-person visits. CHBRP had assumed equivalency, so expenditure, utilization, and health impacts could be less than projected. Other portions of the report remain relevant, as written.
AB 97	Nazarian	Insulin Affordability	Died in Senate Appropriations Committee	Yes	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
AB 114	Maienschein	Medi-Cal Benefits: Rapid Whole Genome Sequencing	Died in Senate Health Committee	Yes	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
AB 570	Santiago	Dependent Parent Health Care Coverage	Approved by the Governor	Yes	The amended language would significantly reduce the fiscal impact projected in CHBRP’s earlier version of AB 570. The amended language now limits the expanded definition of an eligible dependent to individual plan contracts or health insurance policies, whereas before both group and individual plans or policies would be impacted by AB 570.
AB 933	Daly	Prescription Drug Cost Sharing	Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee	Yes	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
AB 935	Maienschein	Telehealth: Mental Health	Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee	Yes	Bill amended to specifically include Medi-Cal managed care plans. However, CHBRP had already interpreted the bill in its original form to include Medi-Cal managed care plans. All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
AB 1254	Gipson	Mobile Stroke Units	Died in Assembly Health Committee	No	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
		Guaranteed Health Care for All	Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee	No	CHBRP completed a follow-up limited analysis in January 2022 of a few specified scenarios. All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
AB 1859	Levine	Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Treatment	Vetoed by the Governor	Yes	Final version of the bill includes amended language that adds substance use disorder treatment and specifies that health plans and insurers that cover mental health services approve provision of medically necessary treatment for a mental health or substance use disorder. It requires these plans and insurers to process a referral for a voluntary follow-up appointment after an involuntary hold as a request for an appointment and to offer an appointment that meets geographic and timely access standards. The referring facility is required to provide plans and insurers notification of a referral within 48 hours of the referral being made. All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant to the aspects of the bill related to coverage of mental health services after discharge from an involuntary hold.
AB 1930	Arambula	Medi-Cal: Comprehensive Perinatal Services	Vetoed by the Governor	Yes	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
AB 2024	Friedman	Breast Imaging	Died in Senate Appropriations Committee	Yes	Final version of the bill includes amended language that would allow cost sharing for high deductible health plan/policy (HDHP) enrollees who have not yet met the year’s deductible. HDHPs include an annual deductible of $1,400 or more per year. CHBRP’s fiscal and public health analysis remains directionally correct. However, if the amended language would be relevant for all enrollees in HDHPs, impacts could be lower for 22% of commercial enrollees. If the amended language would be relevant only for enrollees in HDHPs associated with health savings accounts (HSAs), impacts would be lower for 6% of commercial enrollees. All other portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant. The amended language also adds an Insurance Code reference to self-insured employee welfare benefit plans. As CDI does not regulate such plans, the impact of the addition is unclear.
AB 2029	Wicks	Health Care Coverage: Treatment for Infertility	Died in Assembly Health Committee	Yes	Final version of the bill includes amended language that requires coverage of infertility treatments for the large group market and requires insurers to offer coverage to small group plans and policies. Additional amendments limit the number of completed oocyte retrievals to three and provide a lifetime benefit maximum of $75,000. CHBRP’s fiscal and public health analysis remains directionally correct, although the magnitude would be smaller. All other portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
AB 2516	Aguiar-Curry	Health Care Coverage: Human Papillomavirus	Vetoed by the Governor	Yes	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
AB 2585	McCarty	Health Care Coverage: Nonpharmacological Pain Management Treatment	Approved by the Governor	Yes	Final version of the bill amends the bill to only make findings and declarations related to the state Pain Patient’s Bill of Rights, including that the health care system should encourage the use of evidence-based nonpharmacological therapies for pain management. The Background and Medical Effectiveness sections of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
AB 2709	Boerner Horvath	Emergency Ground Medical Transportation	Died in Assembly Health Committee	No	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
SB 110	Wiener	Substance Use Disorder Services: Contingency Management Services	Vetoed by the Governor	Yes	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant to the portion of the bill addressing contingency management. The amended language defines contingency management as an “optional benefit” which continues a level of uncertainty in projecting how many persons would use the benefit.
SB 245	Gonzalez	Abortion Services: Cost Sharing	Approved by the Governor	Yes	Final version expands the types of plans/policies subject to the bill and limits the utilization management prohibition to outpatient abortion services. These amendments would likely result in changes to utilization of abortion services and changes to expenditure impacts, although the degree is unknown. All other portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
SB 306	Pan	Health Care: STD Testing	Approved by the Governor	Yes	The amended language exempts from compliance the benefit coverage of Medi-Cal beneficiaries enrolled in DMHC-regulated plans. The exemption would eliminate the projected cost impacts for Medi-Cal. The exemption would also reduce, by about 70%, projected total increases in testing and treatment as well as expected long-term health improvements from treated STDs and reduced STD transmission. The amended language also differentiates between commercial plans and policies regulated by DMHC or CDI, making the requirements only in effect for the former when an in-network clinician is involved. The specification would reduce impacts among commercial enrollees in DMHC-regulated plans.
SB 428	Hurtado	Adverse Childhood Experiences Screenings	Approved by the Governor	Yes	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant. The final language requires plans/policies that already cover pediatric services and preventive care to now include coverage for ACEs screenings (instead of requiring all plans/policies to cover screenings). The amendment would also not prohibit plans/policies from applying cost-sharing requirements, and would not prohibit plans/policies from exceeding Medi-Cal's rules and regulations for trauma screening (however, Medi-Cal's rules and regulations must serve as the minimum ACEs coverage requirements). These provisions should not materially affect CHBRP’s projections.
SB 473	Bates	Insulin Cost Sharing	Died in Assembly Health Committee	No	CHBRP completed an updated analyses in January 2022 of amended bill language. All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
SB 510	Pan	COVID-19 Cost Sharing	Approved by the Governor	Yes	The amended language specifies coverage for screening tests (inclusive of tests for students, workers, and travelers) and makes retroactive the cost sharing and utilization management prohibitions for coverage of testing and immunization. The amendments could result in increased utilization and premiums. As the scale of such impacts are unknown, impacts on health outcomes are also unknown.
SB 523	Leyva	Contraceptives	Died in Assembly Appropriations Committee	Yes	The July 8th amendments require coverage for hysterectomies and other similar sterilization techniques, in addition to voluntary tubal ligations. The bill now also prohibits health plans and policies from requiring prior authorization on vasectomy services and procedures. The May 3rd amendments require coverage without cost sharing for over-the-counter (OTC) birth control methods obtained at in-network pharmacies; the mandate no longer applies to out-of-network pharmacies or retailers. The May 3rd amendments also remove the authority for health plans and policies to establish frequency and quantity limits for coverage of contraceptive methods. OTC birth control methods are now limited to those included as essential health benefits. The bill now explicitly mandates coverage without cost sharing for vasectomies, with an exemption for grandfathered and health savings account (HSA)-eligible plans and policies. CHBRP had already interpreted the bill to require coverage for vasectomies and assumed that grandfathered and HSA-eligible plans and policies would continue to have cost sharing postmandate. All cost estimates were based on expected utilization rather than frequency or quantity limits. Thus, these portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant. However, CHBRP’s analysis only includes the impacts of coverage for tubal ligations, not hysterectomies or other sterilization services. Coverage of other female sterilization services may impact cost offsets for female sterilization services depending on their impact on use of vasectomy services.
SB 535	Limón	Biomarker Testing	Approved by the Governor	Yes	Bill amended to require compliant benefit coverage for Medi-Cal beneficiaries in DMHC-regulated plans. CHBRP’s fiscal estimates are relevant for enrollees with commercial and CalPERS coverage, though the amendment would likely result in additional expenditures related to the Medi-Cal beneficiaries. All other portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant as written.
SB 562	Portantino	Pervasive Developmental Disorders or Autism	Vetoed by the Governor	Yes	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
SB 568	Pan	Deductibles: Chronic Disease Management	Died in Assembly Health Committee	Yes	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
SB 613	Limón	Maternal Health: Neonate Medical Wrap	Died in Senate Health Committee	No	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
SB 853	Wiener	Prescription Drug Coverage	Died in Assembly Health Committee	Yes	Final version of the bill includes amended language that would somewhat reduce impacts on cost sharing and somewhat increase impacts on premiums for enrollees in DMHC-regulated health plans and CDI-regulated health policies. Amended language regarding coverage for persons engaged with other CDI-regulated disability insurance is beyond the scope of CHBRP’s analysis.
SB 858	Wiener	Health Care Service Plans: Discipline: Civil Penalties	Approved by the Governor	Yes	Final version of the bill includes amended language that would limit the maximum amount of a civil penalty per violation and increase the current amount per violation of specific administrative penalties. Directionally, CHBRP’s projected fiscal impacts remain valid and all other portions of the analysis remain relevant.
SB 912	Limon	Biomarker Testing	Vetoed by the Governor	Yes	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
SB 974	Portantino	Breast Imaging	Vetoed by the Governor	Yes	Final version of the bill includes amended language specifying that (1) for enrollees in high deductible health plans (HDHPs), cost sharing prohibitions apply only after the deductible is met and (2) for all enrollees, cost sharing is generally allowed for out-of-network providers. CHBRP’s fiscal and public health analysis remains directionally correct, as relevant services are most commonly accessed through in-network providers, though impacts on utilization and cost sharing could be somewhat lower, as impacts for enrollees in HDHPs would be less. All other portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
SB 1191	Bates	Medi-Cal: Pharmacogenomic Testing	Vetoed by the Governor	Yes	Final version of the bill includes amended language that adds a stipulation that funds must be appropriated by the Legislature for the provisions to go into effect. All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
SB 1337	McGuire	Coordinated Specialty Care Services for First-Episode Psychosis	Died in Senate Appropriations Committee	Yes	All portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant.
SB 1338	Umberg and Eggman	Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court Program	Approved by the Governor	Yes	All portions of CHBRP’s limited analysis of specific aspects of the bill remain relevant. The implementation dates of the bill have been amended, delaying expenditures but not materially changing CHBRP’s projections.
SB 1473	Pan	COVID-19 Therapeutics	Approved by the Governor	Yes	CHBRP’s limited analysis considers only aspects of the bill pertaining to coverage of COVID-19 therapeutics. Amended language would make those requirements applicable to the coverage of Medi-Cal beneficiaries enrolled in DMHC-regulated plans. CHBRP’s informative example remains directionally correct, though impacts on utilization could be somewhat higher.
Bill Number	Bill Author	Bill Title	Current location	Amended	Which portions of CHBRP’s analysis remain relevant?

Status of Bills

2021-2022

California Health Benefits Review Program (CHBRP)