(a)  Every clinic holding a license shall, on or before the 15th day of February each year, file with the Department of Health Care Access and Information, upon forms to be furnished by the department, a verified report showing the following information relating to the previous calendar year:

(1)  Number of patients served and descriptive information, including, but not limited to, age, gender, race, and ethnic background of patients.

Terms Used In California Health and Safety Code 1216

  • Charity: An agency, institution, or organization in existence and operating for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons and conducted for educational, religious, scientific, medical, or other beneficent purposes.
  • clinic: means an organized outpatient health facility that provides direct medical, surgical, dental, optometric, or podiatric advice, services, or treatment to patients who remain less than 24 hours, and that may also provide diagnostic or therapeutic services to patients in the home as an incident to care provided at the clinic facility. See California Health and Safety Code 1200
  • County: includes city and county. See California Health and Safety Code 14
  • Department: means the Licensing and Certification Division of the State Department of Public Health, or its successor. See California Health and Safety Code 1200
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Primary care clinics: means all the types of clinics specified in subdivision (a) of Section 1204, including community clinics and free clinics. See California Health and Safety Code 1200
  • Specialty clinics: means all the types of clinics specified in subdivision (b) of Section 1204, including surgical clinics, chronic dialysis clinics, and rehabilitation clinics. See California Health and Safety Code 1200
  • State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Health and Safety Code 23

(2)  Number of patient visits by type of service, including all of the following:

(A)  Child health and disability prevention screens, treatment, and followup services.

(B)  Medical services.

(C)  Dental services.

(D)  Other health services.

(3) Total clinic operating expenses.

(4) Gross patient charges by payer category, including Medicare, Medi-Cal, the Child Health Disability Prevention Program, county indigent programs, other county programs, private insurance, self-paying patients, nonpaying patients, and other payers.

(5) Deductions from revenue by payer category, bad debts, and charity care charges.

(6) Additional information as may be required by the Department of Health Care Access and Information or the State Department of Public Health.

(b) In the event that a clinic fails to file a timely report, the department may suspend the license of the clinic until the report is completed and filed with the Department of Health Care Access and Information.

(c) In order to promote efficient reporting of accurate data, the Department of Health Care Access and Information shall consider the unique operational characteristics of different classifications of licensed clinics, including, but not limited to, the limited scope of services provided by some specialty clinics, in its design of forms for the collection of data required by this section.

(d) For the purpose of administering funds appropriated from the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Surtax Fund for support of licensed clinics, clinics receiving those funds may be required to report any additional data the Department of Health Care Access and Information or the State Department of Public Health may determine necessary to ensure the equitable distribution and appropriate expenditure of those funds. This shall include, but not be limited to, information about the poverty level of patients served and communicable diseases reported to local health departments.

(e) This section shall apply to all primary care clinics.

(f) This section shall apply to all specialty clinics, as defined in subdivision (b) of Section 1204 that receive tobacco tax funds pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 30121) of Chapter 2 of Part 13 of Division 2 of the Revenue and Taxation Code.

(g) Specialty clinics that are not required to report pursuant to subdivision (f) shall report data as directed in Section 1216 as it existed prior to the enactment of Chapter 1331 of the Statutes of 1989 and Chapter 51 of the Statutes of 1990.

(h) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2027, and as of that date is repealed.

(Amended by Stats. 2023, Ch. 505, Sec. 3. (SB 779) Effective January 1, 2024. Repealed as of January 1, 2027, by its own provisions.)

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