An act to add Sections 123486, 123487, 123501, and 123521 to the Health and Safety Code, relating to health care.
SB 228 revises California’s Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program, which serves pregnant and postpartum Medi-Cal members, by making the Department of Health Care Services the lead agency responsible for implementing the benefit for Medi-Cal purposes. The bill preserves the Department of Public Health’s role but requires the two departments to clarify their responsibilities through regulation by July 1, 2027. It also directs the departments to update oversight rules for managed care and fee-for-service delivery, create provider training on administering the program, and require all perinatal providers in the program to complete that training.
The bill adds new operational and reporting requirements intended to improve access and accountability. By January 31, 2026, DHCS must implement a system to ensure managed care plans and fee-for-service providers offer and provide CPSP services to eligible beneficiaries, and managed care plans must include enhanced perinatal benefit information in member handbooks. Plans must also ensure provider training is completed and conduct quality assurance reviews of perinatal providers at least every three years. In addition, DHCS must develop a form to collect data on whether services were offered and used, verify the information, and use it in quality assurance efforts.
SB 228 also requires DHCS to report to the Legislature and post publicly on its website. By July 15, 2026, DHCS must report the number of pregnant and postpartum individuals who were offered and who received CPSP services from January 1, 2022 through January 1, 2025. Beginning in 2028, the department must submit similar reports every three years covering the prior three-year period. The bill also expresses legislative intent to implement recommendations from California State Auditor Report 2023-103, including stronger oversight and additional data collection.
The bill’s impact on state law is to shift and clarify administrative responsibility within the existing perinatal services framework, while adding new duties for DHCS, the Department of Public Health, managed care plans, and providers. It does not create an appropriation, but it does impose new regulatory, training, reporting, and compliance obligations that affect Medi-Cal administration and the delivery of perinatal services statewide.
Overall sentiment around the bill appears strongly supportive and noncontroversial in committee, with unanimous or near-unanimous votes at each recorded stage and no recorded opposition in the provided history. The main point of contention is not outright opposition but implementation burden: the bill adds new oversight, training, verification, and reporting requirements, which may raise administrative and compliance concerns for DHCS, managed care plans, and providers. The bill also reflects an effort to respond to audit findings about gaps in monitoring and service delivery.
SB 228 amends the Health and Safety Code to clarify that the Department of Health Care Services is ultimately responsible for administering the Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program for Medi-Cal, while requiring coordination with the Department of Public Health. It adds new statutory duties for regulation updates, provider training, managed care plan oversight, data collection, verification, and recurring legislative reporting, thereby expanding the administrative obligations tied to Medi-Cal perinatal benefits for state agencies, managed care plans, and perinatal providers.
The bill appears to have broad support in the legislative process reflected here. Committee and floor votes were unanimous or overwhelmingly favorable, and the bill advanced through multiple hearings without recorded dissent in the provided materials. The discussion context suggests the measure is viewed as a technical and oversight-focused response to audit recommendations rather than a politically divisive policy change.
The primary issues raised by the bill’s structure are operational rather than ideological. The most notable point is the allocation of responsibility between DHCS and the Department of Public Health, with SB 228 making DHCS the lead for Medi-Cal implementation while preserving collaboration with Public Health. Another likely area of concern is the added compliance burden on managed care plans and providers, who must ensure training completion, offer services consistently, conduct quality assurance reviews, and support new data reporting and verification systems. The bill’s intent language also signals that additional legislation may be needed to fully implement audit recommendations, suggesting the current measure is only part of a broader oversight reform effort.