New Date for First Hearing on California Bill to Hold Hospitals Accountable on Charity Care/Community Benefit
Senate to Also Consider Hospital ‘Observation’ Standards

A hearing on legislation to hold California non-profit hospitals accountable on how much charity care and community benefit services they provide in return for their tax-exempt status has been postponed a week – to Wednesday, April 29.

SB 346, the Community Benefit and Charity Care at Nonprofit Hospitals Act, introduced will be now be heard by the Senate Health Committee Wednesday April 29.

At that hearing, the committee will also consider SB 483, a bill to set standards on the use of “observation” status in California hospitals.  The bill is intended to extend protections for patients held for “observation” that are provided for other hospital patients.

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United is a sponsor of both bills.

State Senator Bob Wieckowski is the SB 346 author. Key goals of the bill are to assure that non-profit hospitals provide uniform levels of charity care and community benefit programs, increase reporting to provide greater public transparency, and require increased community representation on the hospital giants’ community benefits planning boards.

The Greenlining Institute, and the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation are among the bill’s lead sponsors along with CNA.

Sen. Jim Beall is the author of SB 483. It addresses one of the biggest growing and least reported problems in U.S. hospitals – the placement of patients in “observation” status, where they can be held for hours or days with less public oversight and fewer protections.

CNA contends that hospitals increasingly use “observation” status – which can mean holding a patient in a hospital bed or even on a gurney in a hallway for long periods of time – specifically to avoid admitting patients in need of more specialized hospital care.