School-Based Medicaid Perspective on California’s FY 2014/15 Budget

July 29, 2014

California’s 2014-15 budget bill and related legislation was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on June 20, 2014. The spending plan maintains a $1.6 billion reserve while detailing $108 billion in General Fund expenditures and total state spending of $156.4 billion.

For the second year in a row, the state budget did not include any provisions that directly impact California’s school Medi-Cal Administrative Activities (MAA) or Local Educational Agency (LEA) Billing Option program. That said, there are some items of note:

K-12 Education Highlights

$5.2 billion to restore the debt attributed to state-deferred payments stretching back several years
$450 million toward the more than $5.8 billion the state owes for unfunded mandates

Medi-Cal Program Highlights

Extends the suspension of the scoliosis screening state mandate through 2014-15, with allows school districts to bill for these services under the LEA Billing Option program
$2 million for a pediatric vision services pilot program to expand vision screenings and services by working collaboratively with school districts

Read early analysis of the 2014-15 California budget by the California Budget Project…