Programs

Facilities#

Health Facility Financing#

HCAI offers financial assistance to eligible facilities in California by providing insured loans for long-term capital projects, working capital loans to support distressed hospitals, and grants to ensure seismic safety for rural hospitals. Learn more about construction financing, working capital loans, and grants below.

Building Safety#

HCAI regulates the design and construction of healthcare facilities to ensure they are safe and capable of providing services to the public, and provides finance tools for capital projects. Find information on facilities, building plans and permits, seismic compliance, inspections, and more.

Affordability#

Office of Health Care Affordability (OHCA)#

OHCA will collect, analyze, and publicly report data on total health care expenditures, and enforce spending targets set by OHCA’s Health Care Affordability Board. To ensure a balanced approach to slow spending growth, OHCA will promote high value system performance by measuring quality, equity, adoption of alternative payment models, investment in primary care and behavioral health, and workforce stability. Through cost and market impact reviews, OHCA will analyze transactions that are likely to significantly impact market competition, the state’s ability to meet targets, or affordability for consumers and purchasers. Based on results of the review, OHCA will then coordinate with other state agencies to address consolidation as appropriate.

Hospital Fair Billing#

California’s Department of Health Care Access and Information is responsible for enforcing the Hospital Fair Pricing Act (Act) beginning January 1, 2024, through its Hospital Bill Complaint Program. Under the Act, hospitals are required to have both a discount payment policy and a charity care policy, to provide financial assistance to qualified patients. If you believe you were wrongly denied financial assistance, you may file a complaint with the Hospital Bill Complaint Program.

The Hospital Bill Complaint Program can also investigate complaints about a hospital’s failure to:

• Provide patients with written notice about its discount payment and charity care programs.
• Post notices about the policies on the hospital walls.
• Follow proper procedures before sending medical debt to collections.
• Follow other requirements of the Act.

If you believe you were wrongfully denied financial assistance, you may file a complaint with the Hospital Bill Complaint Program. The Patient Complaint Form is available for download in many languages.

The Hospital Bill Complaint Program does not have jurisdiction (authority) over general billing or fee disputes.