Cal. HSC § 1255.25 — California Code / Code hsc / Division 2 / Chapter 2 / Article 1 / Section 1255.25
Section 1255.25
Status: in_force

(a) (1) Except as provided in subparagraph (3), not less than 120 days prior to closing a health facility, as defined in subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 1250, or 90 days prior to eliminating a supplemental service, as defined in Section 70067 of Chapter 1 of Division 5 of Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations, the facility shall provide public notice of the proposed closure or elimination of the supplemental service, including a notice posted at the entrance to all affected facilities, a notice to all contracted Medi-Cal managed care plans, as defined in subdivision (j) of Section 14181.101 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, and a notice to the department and the board of supervisors of the county in which the health facility is located.

(2) Not less than 90 days prior to relocating the provision of supplemental services to a different campus, a health facility, as defined in subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 1250, shall provide public notice of the proposed relocation of supplemental services, including a notice posted at the entrance to all affected facilities and notice to the department and the board of supervisors of the county in which the health facility is located.

(3) (A) Not less than 120 days prior to eliminating a supplemental service of either an inpatient psychiatric unit or a perinatal unit, a health facility, as defined in subdivisions (a) and (b) of Section 1250, shall provide public notice of the proposed elimination of the supplemental service, including a notice posted at the entrance to all affected facilities, a notice to all contracted Medi-Cal managed care plans, as defined in subdivision (j) of Section 141814.101 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, and a notice to the department and the board of supervisors of the county in which the health facility is located.

(B) The health facility shall conduct at least one noticed public hearing within 60 days of providing public notice of the proposed elimination of the inpatient psychiatric unit or perinatal unit, in addition to accepting public comment pursuant to subparagraph (C) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (b). The health facility shall post the public hearing notice and the agenda alongside their public notice for the proposed elimination of services, pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b). The health facility holding the public hearing held shall comply with all of the following requirements:

(i) Hold the public hearing within the county in which the health facility is located and within 25 miles of the health facility and be accessible to the public remotely.

(ii) Accept written public comment in advance of the hearing and reserve adequate time on the agenda for public comments from individuals attending in-person and remotely.

(iii) Notify the board of supervisors of the county in which the health facility is located when a public hearing is scheduled and invite the board of supervisors to provide testimony on the impacts of the elimination of services to the county and community health systems.

(b) (1) The public notice required by subdivision (a) shall include all of the following:

(A) A description of the proposed closure, elimination, or relocation. The description shall be limited to publicly available data, including the number of beds eliminated, if any, the probable decrease in the number of personnel, and a summary of any service that is being eliminated, if applicable.

(B) A description of the three nearest available comparable services in the community. If the health facility closing these services serves Medi-Cal or Medicare patients, this health facility shall specify if the providers of the nearest available comparable services serve these patients.

(C) A telephone number, address, and email address for each of the following, where interested parties may offer comments:

(i) The health facility.

(ii) The parent entity, if any, or contracted company, if any, that acts as the corporate administrator of the health facility.

(iii) The chief executive officer.

(D) Statistically deidentified and aggregated data about the health facility’s patients who received either inpatient psychiatric services or perinatal services, as applicable, within the past five years, including, but not limited to, all of the following:

(i) The conditions treated.

(ii) The ethnicities of patients served, if the patient voluntarily shared their ethnicity with the health facility. Data on ethnicities shall only be shared on the public notice to the extent to which it does not disclose any personal information in a manner that would link the information disclosed to the individual to whom it pertains.

(iii) The ages of patients served.

(iv) Whether the patients served had private insurance, Medi-Cal, Medicare, or no insurance.

(v) A justification for the health facility’s decision to eliminate services.

(2) For purposes of this section, the public notice required in subdivision (a) shall include, but not be limited to, all of the following:

(A) Written notice to the city council of the city in which the health facility is located.

(B) A continuous notice posted in a conspicuous location on the homepage of the health facility’s internet website.

(C) A notice published in a conspicuous location within a newspaper of general circulation serving the local geographical area in which the health facility is located. The notice shall continue for a minimum of 15 publication dates.

(D) A continuous notice posted in a conspicuous location within the internet website of a newspaper of general circulation serving the local geographical area in which the health facility is located.

(E) A notice posted at the entrance of every community clinic within the affected county in which the health facility is located that grants voluntary permission for posting.

(c) Notwithstanding subdivisions (a) and (b), this section shall not apply to county facilities subject to Section 1442.5.

(d) This section shall not apply to a health facility that is forced to close or eliminate a service as a result of a natural disaster or state of emergency that prevents the health facility from being able to operate at its current level.