LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two lawmakers are backing a bill that could give the public much more access to information about Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchange contracts, officials said Monday.
Republican Sen. Bill Emmerson and Democratic Sen. Mark DeSaulnier have introduced the PPACA exchange deal records bill, Senate Bill 332, in the state Senate.
The Associated Press recently reported that California has given the state's Covered California exchange program much more vendor contract privacy than other states have given their PPACA exchanges.
"It should all be transparent," Emmerson said in an interview.
Covered California was given authority "to do things no one else could do," Emmerson said. "There was no sunlight on it."
An AP review of the 16 other states that opted for state-run marketplaces found the California agency was given powers that are the most restrictive in what information is required to be made public, and that explicit exclusions from open-records laws might run afoul of the state constitution.
The bipartisan bill, if passed in the Legislature, would take effect immediately "in order to ensure that public resources are managed efficiently," according to the text. Only narrower, temporary exemptions would be allowed, consistent with long-standing state law.
In August 2010, when California was sprinting to become the first state to embrace the most extensive health care changes since Medicare, state lawmakers gave the new agency the authority to keep all contracts private for a year and the amounts paid secret indefinitely.
According to agency documents, Covered California plans to spend about $458 million on outside vendors by the end of 2014. The agency plans to make contracts with lawyers, consultants, public relations advisers and others.
