SB 779: Primary Care Clinic Data Modernization Act.

Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of clinics, including primary care clinics and specialty clinics, by the State Department of Public Health. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing law excludes certain facilities from those provisions, including a clinic that is operated by a primary care community or free clinic and that is operated on separate premises from the licensed clinic and is only open for limited services of no more than 40 hours a week, also referred to as an intermittent clinic.

Existing law imposes various reporting requirements on clinics, including requiring a clinic to provide a verified report to the Department of Health Care Access and Information including information relating to the previous calendar year, such as the number of patients served and specified descriptive information, medical and other health services provided, total clinic operating expenses, and gross patient charges by payer category. Existing law specifies that the reporting requirements apply to all primary care clinics.

Existing law requires the Department of Health Care Access and Information to be the single state agency designated to collect certain health facility or clinic data for use by all state agencies, as prescribed.

Commencing January 1, 2027, this bill would repeal and recast these reporting requirements, including, but not limited to, extending their application to intermittent clinics operated by licensed clinics. The bill would establish specific reporting requirements for specialty clinics, as defined. The bill would require an organization that operates, conducts, owns, or maintains a primary care clinic or intermittent clinic, and its officers, to file specified reports with the Department of Health Care Access and Information for every primary care clinic and every intermittent clinic that it operates, conducts, owns, or maintains, on or before the 15th day of February each year, including, but not limited to, a report of all mergers and acquisitions, a detailed labor report, and a report of quality and equity measures. The bill would require the department to adopt regulations necessary to implement these reporting requirements and to require the first annual reports to be submitted on or before February 15, 2028, using information relating to the calendar year beginning January 1, 2027.

Because a violation of certain provisions of the bill by a primary care clinic or intermittent clinic would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.