2011 California Code
Welfare and Institutions Code
DIVISION 4. MENTAL HEALTH [4000 - 4390]
ARTICLE 2. Private Residential Care Facilities
Section 4075

The department shall establish and maintain an equitable system of payment for the special needs of mentally disordered persons in private residential care facilities for the mentally disabled as follows:

(a) The department shall establish the rates of payment which shall be based on the functional ability and programmatic needs of clients. The department shall establish a standardized assessment tool and client monitoring system for counties to use in determining the functional ability and programmatic needs of mentally disordered clients pursuant to this chapter.

(b) The department shall adopt regulations necessary to establish eligibility criteria for private residential care facilities, including, but not limited to, training and educational requirements for facility operators and staff and ability to meet specified special needs of clients.

(c) The department shall establish rates annually in consultation with the California Conference of Local Mental Health Directors and provider groups. These rates shall include, but not be limited to, each of the cost elements in this section as follows:

(1) Rates established for all facilities shall include an adequate amount to care for basic living needs of a mentally disordered person. Basic living needs are defined to include housing, including shelter, utilities, and furnishings; food; and personal care. These amounts may be adjusted annually to reflect cost-of-living changes. A redetermination of basic living costs shall be undertaken every three years by the department using the best available estimating methods.

(2) To the extent applicable, rates established for facilities shall include a reasonable amount for unallocated services. These costs shall be determined using generally accepted accounting principles. Unallocated services, for the purposes of this section, means the indirect costs of managing a facility and includes costs of managerial personnel, facility operation, maintenance and repair, employee benefits, taxes, interest, insurance, depreciation, and general and administrative support. If a facility serves other persons in addition to mentally disordered persons, unallocated services expenses shall be reimbursed under this section, only for the proportion of the costs associated with the care of mentally disordered persons.

(3) Rates established for facilities shall include an amount to reimburse facilities for the depreciation of mandated capital improvements and equipment as established in the state s uniform accounting manual. For purposes of this section, mandated capital improvements and equipment are only those remodeling and equipment costs incurred by a facility because an agency of government has required the remodeling or equipment as a condition for the use of the facility as a provider of care to mentally disordered persons.

(4) To the extent applicable, rates established for all facilities shall include as a factor an amount to reflect differences in the cost of living for different geographic areas in the state.

(5) Rates established for facilities shall include an amount for supervision where the functional ability or programmatic needs of residents require augmented supervisory staff.

(6) Rates of payment for private residential care facilities shall be established in such ways as to ensure the maximum utilization of all federal and other sources of funding, to which mentally disordered persons are legally entitled, prior to the commitment of state funds for those purposes.

(d) In no case shall the rates established under this section be less than the rates paid for equivalent categories of regional center clients which were in effect on July 1, 1985.

(Amended by Stats. 1991, Ch. 611, Sec. 20. Effective October 7, 1991.)