Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Friday signed a bill (SB 650) by Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento) that will provide $2.4 million in funding for the current fiscal year to the Improving Access, Counseling and Treatment for Californians with Prostate Cancer Program for low-income residents, the Sacramento Bee reports (Furillo, Sacramento Bee, 10/1).
The law allocates $2.4 million to the IMPACT program through July 1, 2006, and $3.2 million for fiscal year 2006-2007. It requires 87% of funding to be designated for patient care.
The law will require the contract to administer the program to be put up for competitive bidding beginning in FY 2006-2007. The University of California-Los Angeles has administered the program since it began in 2001 (San Francisco Chronicle, 10/1).
In July, Schwarzenegger closed enrollment to the IMPACT program and used a line-item veto to eliminate $3 million in funding that would have allowed 104 patients on a waiting list to join the program. In his veto message, he said that overhead accounts for 45% of the program's budget and that more money should be dedicated to patient care (California Healthline, 7/12).
In his bill-signing statement on Friday, Schwarzenegger said the new law will treat patients "in a cost-effective manner" (Sacramento Bee, 10/1).
Additional Bills
Schwarzenegger signed eight additional bills addressing health-related issues, including:
- SB 634, by Sen. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo), which requires all health insurers operating in the state to comply with the same consumer and provider protection laws that govern HMOs;
- SB 666, by Sen. Sam Aanestad (R-Nevada City), addressing congregate living health facilities;
- SB 798, by Sen. S. Joseph Simitian (D-Palo Alto), which authorizes counties to create programs to dispense surplus prescription drugs to low-income, uninsured residents;
- AB 354, by Assembly member Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto), which requires Medi-Cal to cover the cost of telemedicine consultations with ophthalmologists and dermatologists (Office of the Governor release, 9/30);
- AB 929, by Assembly member Jenny Oropeza (D-Carson), which authorizes the Department of Health Services Radiological Health Branch to set standards for facilities that use X-ray machines and other radiation-producing equipment (San Jose Mercury News, 10/1). Under the law, facilities that use such equipment are required to develop and maintain quality-assurance programs to monitor public health and safety;
- AB 1278, by Assembly member Bill Emmerson (R-Rancho Cucamonga), which requires medical and health information contained in state birth certificates to comply with federal standards for data collection (Office of the Governor release, 9/30);
- AB 1507, by Assembly member Fran Pavley (D-Woodland Hills), which requires health clubs to have an automatic external defibrillator and train staff how to use it (Rau/Vogel, Los Angeles Times, 10/1); and
- AB 1676, by Assembly member Keith Stuart Richman (R-Granada Hills), addressing advance directives and end-of-life care for the terminally ill (Office of the Governor release, 9/30).