What’s happening: On April 25, CHA submitted to the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) comments on how to best allocate Proposition (Prop) 35 funding in 2025 and beyond.
What else to know: Also on April 25, Tam Ma, Prop 35 Protect Access to Health Care Act Stakeholder Advisory Committee member and associate vice president for health policy and regulatory affairs for University of California Health, sent a letter on hospitals’ behalf echoing CHA’s recommendations. Both letters urged DHCS to fully expend Prop 35 funds on hospital providers in a way that is timely, easy to implement, allows for ongoing flexibility, and can be targeted.
For hospital outpatient and emergency department facility services, the letters recommend that the state:
- For 2025, pursue a state-only grant program — an approach that both recognizes the need to get payments to hospitals in a timely manner and avoids additional federal approval
- For 2026, reserve a portion of the total amounts for targeted increases to fee-for-service rates for select outpatient and emergency department codes identified in consultation with the hospital field, then use the remaining funds either to augment existing add-ons applicable to payments hospitals receive from Medi-Cal managed care plans under existing directed payment programs, or for a new directed payment with add-on(s) applicable to all hospitals
- For 2027 and beyond, work with hospital partners on furthering shared policy goals around value, financial stability, simplicity, and timeliness
To improve behavioral health facility throughput in 2025 and 2026, the letters recommend that the state:
- Provide across-the-board rate increases to hospitals for acute psychiatric services
- Support emergency departments and attempt to reduce the volume of patient transfers to psychiatric inpatient hospitals
