(a) The department shall implement a Management Information System/Decision Support System (MIS/DSS) for the Medi-Cal Program, that shall integrate data from managed care plans to monitor and evaluate the quality of care provided to beneficiaries, including access to services, establish provider rates, and analyze ways to improve both the managed care and fee-for-service systems.

(b) The department shall provide the fiscal and health policy committees of the Legislature with an annual progress and status report on the implementation of the MIS/DSS. The annual progress and status report shall include a description of the current status of the project, including a list of the specific project objectives that have and have not been met at the time of the report and a comparison of the actual progress of the project with the most recent project schedule approved by the Legislature. The report also shall include estimated expenditures and staffing for the current fiscal year and proposed expenditures and staffing for the next fiscal year as well as a summary of cumulative total project expenditures to date and a projection of future expenditures necessary to complete the project.

(c) The department shall provide system or information access to the fiscal and health policy committees of the Legislature, with the most cost-effective technology available, by the conclusion of the third phase of this multiphase project. Access shall include both the management information system and ad hoc report systems, or their equivalent, with safeguards to block access to individual patient identities. Public access shall be provided to at least the management information system summary presentation, or an equivalent, by the time of project completion.

(Added by Stats. 1997, Ch. 294, Sec. 78. Effective August 18, 1997.)