Plain English Breakdown
Checked against official source text during the last sync.
AB-448: Hospital Loan Repayment and Therapeutic Program Rules
This law extends the time certain public hospitals have to repay emergency loans and adds new rules for short-term residential therapeutic programs regarding parent residency, phone calls, and footwear.
What This Bill Does
- Requires nondesignated public hospitals that received COVID-19 cashflow loans to begin monthly payments 32 months after receiving the loan instead of immediately.
- Extends the deadline for these hospitals to fully repay their loans from 24 months to 60 months.
- Sets the interest rate on these extended hospital loans at 0% and requires equal monthly payments over the loan term.
- Requires short-term residential therapeutic programs to ensure a parent or legal guardian lives in California while their child receives treatment there.
- Mandates that children in these programs can make confidential phone calls to parents or guardians at all times.
- Requires these programs to provide children with outdoor footwear suitable for wearing outside at all times.
- Allows civil penalties, license suspension, or revocation if a program breaks the new rules and harms a child's health or safety.
Who It Names or Affects
- Nondesignated public hospitals that received cashflow loans during the COVID-19 emergency.
- Short-term residential therapeutic programs licensed by the State Department of Social Services.
- Children, including foster children, living in these short-term treatment facilities.
Terms To Know
- Nondesignated public hospitals
- Public hospitals that received emergency cashflow loans under the California Health Facilities Financing Authority Act.
- Short-term residential therapeutic program
- A licensed facility providing 24-hour care, treatment, and supervision to children for a limited time.
- Amortized payments
- Paying off a loan in equal monthly amounts over the full length of the loan term.
Limits and Unknowns
- The official text does not specify an effective date for when these new rules begin.
- Specific details on how programs must follow the new requirements will be created later by regulations from the State Department of Social Services.