WeVote
Log In

Bill

Bill

SB 912

Comprehensive perinatal services.

2025-2026 Regular Session Introduced by Sabrina Cervantes

DHCS would govern a statewide comprehensive perinatal services program for Medi-Cal, standardizing training, reporting, and payments to improve access and outcomes.

May 14 hearing: Held in committee and under submission.
#comprehensiveperinatalservices
0
WeVote Research Nonpartisan
Bill Summary · SB 912

Summary: SB 912 (2025-2026) — Comprehensive Perinatal Services (California)

Purpose and core aim
- Reforms the governance and delivery of comprehensive perinatal services for Medi-Cal members.
- Shifts statewide oversight to the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) as the single state agency responsible for delivering the comprehensive perinatal services benefit, with ongoing collaboration with the Department of Public Health (DPH).
- Aims to improve monitoring, reporting, provider training, and access to perinatal services to reduce maternal and infant mortality and morbidity.

Key provisions and changes
- Governance and roles
- DHCS would oversee a statewide, comprehensive, community-based perinatal services program.
- DPH would continue to play a role in contracts, grants, and certain collaborative activities, but DHCS remains the designated single state agency for Medi-Cal-related perinatal services.
- By regulation, the departments would clarify roles and responsibilities (roles and responsibilities to be finalized by January 1, 2028).

  • Training and implementation

    • DHCS must develop a training program on administering informational and educational materials about comprehensive perinatal services.
    • All perinatal care providers serving Medi-Cal members (including managed care and fee-for-service providers) must attend the training by January 1, 2028.
    • Medi-Cal managed care plans must ensure their network providers receive the training, and disseminate materials to recipients as specified.

  • Data, reporting, and oversight

    • By no sooner than January 1, 2027 (and no later than July 15, 2027 for a baseline report), DHCS must inform Assembly and Senate Health Committees, and post on its website, the number of pregnant and postpartum individuals who received comprehensive perinatal services from Jan 1, 2022, to Jan 1, 2025.
    • Starting January 1, 2028 and every three years thereafter, DHCS would report the number of pregnant and postpartum individuals who received or were offered comprehensive perinatal services in the prior three calendar years.
    • By January 1, 2028, and every three years thereafter, the system would publicly report de-identified perinatal services utilization data, respecting privacy laws.

  • Provider payment and delivery of services

    • A PPS (per-visit) billable encounter with a comprehensive perinatal practitioner who is not a PPS billable health professional would be prohibited on and after a DHCS-designated effective date (no sooner than Jan 1, 2027).
    • DHCS may implement an alternative payment methodology for FQHCs and Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) to reimburse encounters with community health workers at no less than the applicable Medi-Cal fee-for-service rate when provided the same day or on a different day from a PPS billable visit.

  • Information to plan members

    • Medi-Cal pregnancy care managed care plans must inform members about the availability and access to comprehensive perinatal services.
    • Managed care plans must ensure their network providers have completed the required training.

  • Existing programs and integration

    • The existing Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program is reframed to align with the DHCS-led approach, with DHCS retaining authority to implement the Medi-Cal-based perinatal services benefit.
    • The Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) program remains integrated as a related component under Public Health authority, with expanded coordination and funding considerations.

  • Data collection and evaluation

    • The bill authorizes contracts for external evaluations and specifies program performance standards (recruitment of low-income, first-time mothers; early pregnancy enrollment; comparable visit frequency/content to trials; health indicators).

  • Related reporting and compliance

    • The bill requires site reviews of perinatal providers at least every three years for Medi-Cal managed care plans, starting January 2027.

Who and what is affected
- Medi-Cal members who are pregnant or in the perinatal period (pregnant and postpartum individuals).
- Perinatal care providers, including those in network with Medi-Cal managed care plans and fee-for-service arrangements.
- Medi-Cal managed care plans operating in California.
- State agencies: Department of Health Care Services (primary administrator) and Department of Public Health (collaborative/regulatory roles).

Timelines and key dates
- By January 1, 2028: Regulations clarifying roles; all perinatal providers to complete training; publication of training materials; reporting framework established.
- July 15, 2027: DHCS to report baseline utilization data (2022–2025) to legislative committees and post online.
- January 1, 2027 onward: Medi-Cal managed care plans to conduct site reviews of perinatal providers at least every three years.
- January 1, 2028 and every three years thereafter: Public reporting of utilization data for the previous three years.

Notes on scope and funding
- The bill emphasizes federal Medicaid participation and waivers where necessary to implement comprehensive perinatal services.
- It modulates payment to accommodate community health workers and certain non-traditional perinatal encounters, subject to federal funds and Medi-Cal rules.
- No new general fund appropriation is indicated in the digest; the bill’s fiscal impact would depend on implementation and any required waivers.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

Sign in to ask a question.