Sabrina Cervantes

Existing law establishes the Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program, the goals of which are to decrease and maintain the decreased level of perinatal, maternal, and infant mortality and morbidity in the State of California and to support methods of providing comprehensive prenatal care that prevent prematurity and the incidence of low birth weight infants. Under the program, the State Department of Public Health is required to develop and maintain a statewide comprehensive community-based perinatal services program and enter into contracts, grants, or agreements with health care providers to deliver these services in a coordinated effort. Existing law also requires the department to monitor the delivery of services under those contracts, grants, and agreements through a uniform health data collection system that utilizes epidemiologic methodology.

This bill would specify that the State Department of Health Care Services is responsible for implementing comprehensive community-based perinatal services for purposes of the Medi-Cal program. By July 1, 2027, the bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services, in consultation with the State Department of Public Health, to clarify each department's roles and responsibilities in the Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program by regulation. The bill would, among other things, require the State Department of Health Care Services to develop a training on administering the program, require all perinatal providers in the program to attend the training, and require all Medi-Cal managed care plans to ensure providers receive the training. The bill would require the State Department of Health Care Services, no later than July 15, 2026, to submit to the Assembly Health Committee and the Senate Health Committee, and post on its internet website, reports that identify the number of pregnant and postpartum individuals that received and were offered Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program services from January 1, 2022, to January 1, 2025, inclusive. The bill would also require the State Department of Health Care Services, commencing January 1, 2028, and every 3 years thereafter, to submit to those committees, and post on its internet website, reports that identify the number of pregnant and postpartum individuals that received and were offered Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program services during the previous 3 years. The bill would also state the intent of the Legislature to enact additional legislation relating to the program in order to implement several legislative recommendations made in a specified report issued by the California State Auditor's office including by, among other things, requiring the State Department of Health Care Services to create and use a perinatal services data form to engage in additional data collection duties, as specified.