(a) (1) Each county shall establish within its emergency medical services fund a Physician Services Account. Each county shall deposit in the Physician Services Account those funds appropriated by the Legislature for the purposes of the Physician Services Account of the fund.
(2) (A) Each county may encumber sufficient funds to reimburse physician losses incurred during the fiscal year for which bills will not be received until after the fiscal year.
(B) Each county shall provide a reasonable basis for its estimate of the necessary amount encumbered.
(C) All funds that are encumbered for a fiscal year shall be expended or disencumbered prior to the submission of the report of actual expenditures required by Sections 16938 and 16980.
(b) (1) Funds deposited in the Physician Services Account in the county emergency medical services fund shall be exempt from the percentage allocations set forth in subdivision (a) of Section 1797.98. However, funds in the county Physician Services Account shall not be used to reimburse for physician services provided by physicians employed by county hospitals.
(2) No physician who provides physician services in a primary care clinic which receives funds from this act shall be eligible for reimbursement from the Physician Services Account for any losses incurred in the provision of those services.
(c) The county physician services account shall be administered by each county, except that a county that is eligible to participate in the CMSP pursuant to Section 16809, may elect to have its county physician services account administered by the state.
(d) Costs of administering the account, whether by the county or by the department through the emergency medical services contract-back program, shall be reimbursed by the account based on actual administrative costs, not to exceed 10 percent of the amount of the account.
(e) For purposes of this article “administering agency” means the agency designated by the board of supervisors to administer this article, or the department, in the case of those counties that are eligible to participate in the CMSP pursuant to Section 16809, and that elect to have the state administer this article on their behalf.
(f) The county Physician Services Account shall be used to reimburse physicians for losses incurred for services provided during the fiscal year of allocation due to patients who do not have health insurance coverage for emergency services and care, who cannot afford to pay for those services, and for whom payment will not be made through any private coverage or by any program funded in whole or in part by the federal government with the exception of claims submitted for reimbursement through Section 1011 of the federal Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003.
(g) Physicians shall be eligible to receive payment for patient care services provided by, or in conjunction with, a properly credentialed nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant for care rendered under the direct supervision of a physician and surgeon who is present in the facility where the patient is being treated and who is available for immediate consultation. Payment shall be limited to those claims that are substantiated by a medical record and that have been reviewed and countersigned by the supervising physician and surgeon in accordance with regulations established for the supervision of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in California.
(h) (1) Reimbursement for losses shall be limited to emergency services as defined in Section 16953, obstetric, and pediatric services as defined in Sections 16905.5 and 16907.5, respectively.
(2) It is the intent of this subdivision to allow reimbursement for all of the following:
(A) All inpatient and outpatient obstetric services which are medically necessary, as determined by the attending physician.
(B) All inpatient and outpatient pediatric services which are medically necessary, as determined by the attending physician.
(i) Any physician may be reimbursed for up to 50 percent of the amount claimed pursuant to Section 16955 for the initial cycle of reimbursements made by the administering agency in a given year. All funds remaining at the end of the fiscal year shall be distributed proportionally, based on the dollar amount of claims submitted and paid to all physicians who submitted qualifying claims during that year. The administering agency shall not disburse funds in excess of the total amount of a qualified claim.
(Amended by Stats. 2007, Ch. 577, Sec. 26. Effective October 13, 2007.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018