Section 1179.3 Of Part 5. Office Of Rural Health From California Health And Safety Code >> Division 1. >> Part 5.
1179.3
. (a) (1) The Office of Statewide Health Planning and
Development shall develop and administer a competitive grants program
for projects located in rural areas of California.
(2) The office shall define "rural area" for the purposes of this
section after receiving public input and upon recommendation of the
Interdepartmental Rural Health Coordinating Committee and the Rural
Health Programs Liaison.
(3) The purpose of the grants program shall be to fund innovative,
collaborative, cost-effective, and efficient projects that pertain
to the delivery of health and medical services in rural areas of the
state.
(4) The office shall develop and establish uses for the funds to
fund special projects that alleviate problems of access to quality
health care in rural areas and to compensate public and private
health care providers associated with direct delivery of patient
care. The funds shall be used for medical and hospital care and
treatment of patients who cannot afford to pay for services and for
whom payment will not be made through private or public programs.
(5) The office shall administer the funds appropriated by the
Legislature for purposes of this section. Entities eligible for these
funds shall include rural health providers served by the programs
operated by the office, the Emergency Medical Services Authority, the
State Department of Health Care Services, the State Department of
Public Health, and the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board. The
grant funds shall be used to expand existing services or establish
new services and shall not be used to supplant existing levels of
service. Funds appropriated by the Legislature for this purpose may
be expended in the fiscal year of the appropriation or the subsequent
fiscal year.
(b) The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development shall
establish the criteria and standards for eligibility to be used in
requests for proposals or requests for application, the application
review process, determining the maximum amount and number of grants
to be awarded, preference and priority of projects, compliance
monitoring, and the measurement of outcomes achieved after receiving
comment from the public at a meeting held pursuant to the
Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act (Article 9 (commencing with Section
11120) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the
Government Code).
(c) The Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development shall
make information regarding the status of the funded projects
available at the public meetings described in subdivision (b).