(a) Whenever a foster child enrolled in a county organized health system, established pursuant to Article 2.8 (commencing with Section 14087.5), is placed in an out-of-county placement, the county child welfare agency or probation department with responsibility for the care and placement of the child shall determine, in consultation with the child’s foster caregiver, whether the child should remain enrolled in that county organized health system. The determination shall be made no later than one working day after the out-of-county placement begins.
(b) If it is determined, pursuant to subdivision (a) or at any later date, that a foster child should be disenrolled from a county organized health system due to an out-of-county placement, the county child welfare agency or probation department with responsibility for the care and placement of the child shall request that the child be disenrolled from the county organized health system. The request shall be made to the entity designated by the State Department of Health Care Services to receive requests for disenrollment or to the department, if the department has no designee, no later than one working day after either of the following occurs:
(1) The out-of-county placement begins.
(2) It is determined that a child who initially remained enrolled in the county organized health system following the out-of-county placement, pursuant to subdivision (a), should subsequently be disenrolled.
(c) The State Department of Health Care Services shall, in consultation with other agencies and organizations interested in health care access for foster children, establish for county organized health systems urgent disenrollment procedures that provide for disenrollment of foster children in out-of-county placements within two working days of receipt by the department’s designee or by the department, if the department has no designee, of a request for disenrollment made by the county child welfare services agency, the county probation department, the foster caregiver, or any other person authorized to make medical decisions on behalf of the foster child.
(d) The department shall issue all-county letters or similar instructions to implement subdivision (c) no later than January 1, 2009, and thereafter shall adopt any necessary implementing regulations.
(Added by Stats. 2007, Ch. 467, Sec. 2. Effective January 1, 2008.)