SECTIONS 127900 - California Statutes

HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE

SECTION 127900

127900. (a) The Legislature finds and declares that evidence exists
to support the development of health promotion and health-risk
reduction programs as an effective method of constraining the annual
inflation rate for expenditures in the health industry. It is,
therefore, the intent of the Legislature that a health manpower
education program be developed to demonstrate the health promotion
and health-risk reduction concept at educational institutions, with
special emphasis on health manpower development in urban areas having
a disproportionate share of disadvantaged and indigent persons.
(b) The office shall establish a contract program for funding
allied health manpower training projects related to health promotion
and health-risk reduction. The contract program shall provide funds
to eligible institutions, as determined by the office, for all of the
following purposes:
(1) Teaching existing and future primary care providers about
health-risk reduction through the institutions' basic curricula.
(2) Recruiting, remediating, and retaining minority allied health
professionals, including, but not limited to, physician assistants,
nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, public health nurses, health
educators, dieticians, and nutritionists, especially those who
provide in-home patient care.
(3) Increasing the supply of medical care in underserved urban
areas and demonstrating methods which reduce cost through the use of
allied health personnel.
(c) These funds shall be available to institutions which currently
operate programs for training family practice physicians, other
primary care physicians, and those health professionals identified in
paragraph (2) of subdivision (b).
(d) The recipients of the funds shall provide, but shall not be
limited to providing, orientation and training of primary care
providers in teaching methods related to patient health education and
health promotion, such as educating allied health professionals in
the principles of self-care management as it relates to specific
health problems in medically underserved communities.
(e) The office shall consult with organizations and experts in the
field regarding the establishment of this program, and beginning
with the 1986-87 fiscal year, this program shall be implemented to
the extent funds are provided in the Budget Act. This program shall
be designed to accommodate an appropriation request in the range of
forty thousand dollars ($40,000) to eighty thousand dollars ($80,000)
per year.
(f) The director of the office may waive any of the requirements
of subdivisions (b) and (c) if a potential contractor demonstrates an
ability to meet the goals and objectives of the program.