Incentive Money for Children’s Coverage Cut

State health officials are starting to have second thoughts about paying businesses, nonprofit organizations and others for every eligible child they sign up for the state’s new health insurance program aimed at providing coverage for children.

Members of the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board this week scaled back to $25 from $50 the enrollment money that is supposed to serve as incentive for doctors, businesses and community organizations to enroll the state’s 580,000 eligible children in the new Healthy Families program. The program, touted by Gov. Pete Wilson, offers subsidized insurance to families that earn too much to qualify for Medi-Cal and too little to afford their own plans or to be covered by an employer.

The insurance board is charged with implementing the $500-million Healthy Families program, which is expected to go into effect July 1.

The incentive money was reduced after lawmakers questioned whether the $29 million the state would have paid out in enrollment fees might not be better spent on promoting the program among the general public. Already the state plans to spend $24 million this year on a public awareness campaign.

“If we don’t inform the public, we are not going to get people to enroll,” said Assemblyman Martin Gallegos (D-Baldwin Park), chairman of the Assembly Health Committee. The enrollment fee was a key selling point Democrats used to persuade Republicans to vote for the program in the final hours of the 1997 legislative year.

The incentive money, the argument was, would help reimburse businesses, organizations and community health clinics for the time and effort of enrolling eligible children of working-poor families. Health maintenance organizations were prohibited from receiving the enrollment fees because of fears it would lead to “bounty hunting” and the potential for fraud--concerns that have been expressed by HMO critics like Gallegos.

Although the program will be two-thirds financed by the federal government, state lawmakers need to set aside the state’s portion and officials will be working out final details until the July 1 start date.

HOT BILLS

License Suspension

Bottom Line: Physicians and surgeons whose licenses have been suspended or revoked by another state have been able to move to California and practice medicine before an investigation or hearing could take place. This measure automatically suspends their licenses in California pending review of their histories.

Status: Approved by the Assembly and Senate in September and was signed by Wilson.

Next Step: Takes effect Jan. 1.

Details: AB 563 author Robert Prenter (R-Hanford) can be reached at (916) 445-7558.

Armed Security Guards

Bottom Line: Lets active and retired law enforcement officers carry concealed weapons while working as off-duty security guards without having to apply for a concealed weapons permit.

Status: Approved by the Assembly in August and the Senate in September and was signed into law.

Next Step: A so-called urgency measure, this law took effect immediately upon receiving the governor’s signature in September.

Details: SB 243 author Steve Peace (D-El Cajon) can be reached at (916) 445-6767.