Another big day for floor votes…

Today, a number of Health Access sponsored and/or supported bills passed off the Assembly and Senate Floor. Here’s a quick report from our Sawait Hezchias-Seyoum. Some of the vote totals may change: these were the votes at the time of passage and members can add on later in the Assembly:

* AB 2088 (Hernandez), a Health Access sponsored bill which makes limited benefit plans supplemental to employer based coverage passed off the Assembly Floor with a vote of  42-22.

* AB 1917 (Gordon), another Health Access sponsored bill which spreads out the cost of expensive prescriptions over the course of a year, to better help those with serious chronic conditions like HIV/AIDS, cancer, MS and other diseases manage out-of-pocket expenses passed off the Assembly Floor with a vote of 48-25.

* AB 2533 (Ammiano), which would assure Californians timely access to necessary care at in-network cost sharing passed off the Assembly Floor with a vote of 42-25.

* AB 2400 (Ridley-Thomas), which amends the provider bill of rights to provide a longer notice period and greater specificity about information to be provided by health plans and insurers to health providers passed off the Assembly Floor with a vote of 46-7. Health Access was opposed to a prior version of this bill, but has since removed it’s opposition due to significant amendments accepted by the author to address concerns that it would have allowed physicians to pick and choose whether to accept Covered California patients.

* AB 2325 (Perez), which would establish the Medi-Cal Patient-Centered Communication program (CommuniCal), to provide and reimburse for medical interpretation services to Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are limited English proficient (LEP) passed off the Assembly Floor with a vote of 46-24.

* SB 20 (Hernandez), which modifies the individual market open enrollment period for the 2015 policy year from October 15, 2014 through December 7, 2014 to November 15, 2014 through February 15, 2015, so that it is consistent with the dates announced by the federal government passed off the Assembly Floor with a vote of 54-19.

* SB 1094 (Lara), which would extend the timeframes for Attorney General review of nonprofit hospital transactions and give the Attorney General authority to enforce the conditions imposed on such transactions without litigation passed off the Senate Floor with a vote of 21-15.

* SB 1182 (Leno), which would implement large group rate review and would require provision of detailed data to large purchasers passed off the Senate Floor with a vote of 21-12.