Friends and Family

CMS Proposes Changes to Medicaid Provider Tax Rules

What's happening: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released a proposed rule implementing the provider tax provisions included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), while also proposing additional policy changes that would strengthen federal oversight of Medicaid provider taxes.

CHA Signs on to Second Letter on Cal/OSHA’s Proposed Changes to Walkaround Rule

What’s happening: CHA has signed on to a second coalition letter on the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s (Cal/OSHA) proposed rulemaking for Employer Representative and Representative Authorized by Employees During Workplace Inspections (walkaround rule). It would govern when employer representatives and employee-authorized representatives may accompany Cal/OSHA personnel during workplace inspections.

EMSA Pausing Audit Tool Compliance Activities Through August

What’s happening: The Emergency Medical Services Agency (EMSA) is pausing some activities associated with Assembly Bill 40 compliance and the ambulance patient offload time (APOT) Audit Tool. All APOT audits, compliance evaluations, and ongoing biweekly calls with participating facilities exceeding their APOT standard will be paused through August 2026.

DHCS to Host July 30 Town Hall on Enrollment Requirements for Pharmacy and Medical Billing Claims

What’s happening:  The Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) will host a town hall on July 30 at 9:30 a.m. (PT) to explain Ordering, Referring, and Prescribing (ORP) enrollment requirements for claims across both pharmacy (Medi-Cal Rx) and medical (CA-MMIS) billing systems. While event registration is currently full, interested members should join the waitlist — CHA...

AB 1204 Hospital Equity Reporting Work Group / Office Hours

AB 1204 Health Equity Measures (HEM) Reporting Workgroup HQI is launching a biweekly workgroup to support hospitals as they prepare for AB 1204 Health Equity Measures reporting. This peer-to-peer forum gives hospital staff regular space to troubleshoot data submission challenges, share approaches to common reporting questions, and learn from one another's experience navigating the requirements...

SB 934 (Wiener, D-San Francisco)

SB 934 would expand California's existing prohibition on conversion therapy to include a prohibition on efforts to change an individual's gender identity. It would undermine the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act by: Extending the statute of limitations to age 40 for individuals who were minors at the time of conduct and to 10 years for...

CHA Urges OHCA to Protect All Health Care Workers

What’s happening: This week, CHA commented on the Office of Health Care Affordability’s (OHCA’s) draft regulations implementing the nonsupervisory organized labor cost adjustment to the spending targets. In the letter, CHA stresses that the proposal “falls short of the Legislature’s overarching goals and directives, fails the office’s policy imperative to treat all workers equitably, and creates a policy that is largely unworkable...