Report 2021-123 Recommendation Responses
Report 2021-123: California Hospice Licensure and Oversight: The State's Weak Oversight of Hospice Agencies Has Created Opportunities for Large-Scale Fraud and Abuse (Release Date: March 2022)
Recommendation for Legislative Action
To protect the health and safety of current and prospective hospice patients, the Legislature should require Public Health to issue emergency regulations within one year, while maintaining the general moratorium on new hospice licenses until Public Health issues the regulations. The emergency regulations should do the following: Establish requirements for conducting an initial licensing site visit that include verifying the identities of all hospice
personnel and ensuring that the hospice agency is set up to provide adequate care. Public Health should develop specific requirements for hospice office space and verify compliance with those requirements during the initial site visit.
Description of Legislative Action
AB 2673 (Chapter 797, Statutes of 2022) requires, among other things, the Department of Public Health to issue emergency regulations to implement the recommendations in this audit report. This bill requires Public Health to maintain the moratorium on new hospice agencies until it adopts regulations, but no later than March 29, 2024, two years from the date we issued our audit report. This bill requires the emergency regulations to establish specific recommendations for hospice agency office space. However, this bill does not specifically require the regulations to include requirements for conducting an initial licensing site visit that include verifying the identities of all hospice personnel and ensuring that the hospice agency is set up to provide adequate care.
- Legislative Action Current As-of: January 2023