California Health Care Quality and Affordability Act.

Assembly Member Bonta's legislation expands California's health care cost monitoring framework by broadening oversight of entities that influence health care spending and establishing new reporting requirements for management services organizations. The bill modifies the California Health Care Quality and Affordability Act to enhance the state's ability to track and analyze health care market dynamics.

The legislation updates key definitions to encompass a wider range of health care entities, including health systems under common ownership or control, hedge funds managing health care investments, and management services organizations that provide administrative support services to providers. It specifically defines private equity groups and clarifies which physician practices qualify as providers based on size and cost metrics.

The Office of Health Care Affordability gains new authority to collect data from management services organizations regarding their operations and transactions. These organizations must now provide written notice of agreements that would transfer control or assets, similar to existing requirements for health care entities. The bill also expands transaction reporting requirements to include deals involving private equity groups, hedge funds, and newly created business entities targeting health care acquisitions.

The amendments preserve existing exemptions for transactions already subject to review by other regulatory bodies, including the Department of Managed Health Care and the Insurance Commissioner. The legislation maintains the corporate practice of medicine doctrine while establishing a framework to monitor financial arrangements that could impact health care costs and market competition.