101980-101989

HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE
SECTION 101980-101989




101980.  This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the
Voluntary Health Facility and Clinic Philanthropic Support Act.



101983.  The Legislature finds and declares that, while there
continues to be a need to focus on the deficiencies in the health
care system and on corrective reform measures that might be taken,
there is also need for focus on the enhancement of its strengths.
Existing philanthropic support for health facilities and clinics is a
strength that must be preserved and enhanced under any reform
measure for all of the following reasons:
   (a) Philanthropy imbues members of the community with a sense of
pride in their voluntary nonprofit health facilities and clinics and
creates a setting in which members of the community are willing to
devote time and effort to improve health care available in the
community in a way that government regulation could never replace.
   (b) Philanthropy allows voluntary nonprofit institutions to
conduct research and to engage in other innovative efforts to improve
health care in California.
   (c) Philanthropy provides required discretionary dollars for
voluntary nonprofit institutions, that, in part, substitute for the
absence of profits.
   (d) Philanthropy allows hospitals to replace worn out and obsolete
facilities when, in a period of high inflation, historical costs
accumulated through depreciation are totally insufficient to provide
for the replacement.
   (e) Philanthropy pays for necessary expenditures that otherwise
would have to be paid by patients or by government.
   (f) Philanthropy may be discouraged by certain shortsighted
actions of administrative agencies that, while purporting to serve a
short-term purpose, seriously deter the vast benefits to the health
care field inuring directly from philanthropy and voluntarism.
   (g) Recent amendments to the federal tax laws to broaden the use
of the standard deduction also have the effect of eliminating
important incentives for philanthropy.



101985.  It is, therefore, the intent of the Legislature to create
an environment in which philanthropy and voluntarism in the health
care field and the vast benefits arising from it for the citizens of
California can be encouraged. The Legislature hereby declares it to
be the policy of this state that philanthropic support for health
care be encouraged and expanded, especially in support of
experimental and innovative efforts to improve the health care
delivery system.


101987.  For purposes of any state law, whether enacted before or on
or after January 1, 1980, that in any manner provides for
regulation, review, or reporting of the budget, rates, or revenues of
health facilities, as defined in Section 1250, or clinics, as
defined in Section 1204, including the provisions of Part 1.7
(commencing with Section 440), none of the following shall be treated
directly, or indirectly, as revenues allocable to the cost of care
provided by the health facility or clinic:
   (a) A donor-designated or restricted grant, gift, endowment, or
income therefrom, as defined in Section 405.423(b) of Title 42 of the
Code of Federal Regulations, insofar as permitted by federal law.
   (b) A grant or gift, or income from a grant or gift, that is not
available for use as operating funds because of its designation by
the governing board or entity of the health facility or clinic.
   (c) A grant or similar payment that is made by a governmental
entity and that is not available, under the terms of the grant or
payment, for use as operating funds.
   (d) Amounts attributable to the sale or mortgage of any real
estate or other capital assets of the health facility or clinic that
it acquired through a gift or grant, and that are not available for
use as operating funds under the terms of the gift or grant or
because of designation as provided in subdivision (b).
   (e) A depreciation fund that is created by the health facility or
clinic in order to meet a condition imposed by a third party for the
third party's financing of a capital improvement of the health
facility or clinic, provided the fund is used exclusively to make
payments to the third party for the financing of the capital
improvement.
   (f) Funds used to defray the expense of fundraising.



101989.  No state law shall be construed to discourage philanthropic
support of health facilities and clinics, or to otherwise hinder the
use of this support for purposes determined by the recipients to be
in the best interests of the physicians and patients it serves.
   However, in enacting this chapter and Section 14106.2 of the
Welfare and Institutions Code, the Legislature does not intend to
place any restrictions on cost containment measures relating to
health facilities that may be enacted in the future.