Article XVI Section 3.5 California Constitution
Below is the content of Article XVI Section 3.5 of the California Constitution
(a) No statute amending or adding to the provisions of the Medi-Cal Hospital Reimbursement Improvement Act of 2013 shall become effective unless approved by the electors in the same manner as statutes amending initiative statutes pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 10 of Article II, except that the Legislature may, by statute passed in each house by roll call vote entered into the journal, two-thirds of the membership concurring, amend or add provisions that further the purposes of the act.
(b) For purposes of this section:
(1) “Act” means the Medi-Cal Hospital Reimbursement Improvement Act of 2013 (enacted by Senate Bill 239 of the 2013–14 Regular Session of the Legislature, and any nonsubstantive amendments to the act enacted by a later bill in the same session of the Legislature).
(2) “Nonsubstantive amendments” shall only mean minor, technical, grammatical, or clarifying amendments.
(3) “Provisions that further the purposes of the act” shall only mean:
(A) Amendments or additions necessary to obtain or maintain federal approval of the implementation of the act, including the fee imposed and related quality assurance payments to hospitals made pursuant to the act;
(B) Amendments or additions to the methodology used for the development of the fee and quality assurance payments to hospitals made pursuant to the act.
(c) Nothing in this section shall prohibit the Legislature from repealing the act in its entirety by statute passed in each house by roll call vote entered into the journal, two-thirds of the membership concurring, except that the Legislature shall not be permitted to repeal the act and replace it with a similar statute imposing a tax, fee, or assessment unless that similar statute is either:
(1) A provision that furthers the purposes of the act as defined herein;
(2) Is approved by the electors in the same manner as statutes amending initiative statutes pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 10 of Article II.
(d) The proceeds of the fee imposed by the act and all interest earned on such proceeds shall not be considered revenues, General Fund revenues, General Fund proceeds of taxes, or allocated local proceeds of taxes, for purposes of Sections 8 and 8.5 of this article or for the purposes of Article XIII B. The appropriation of the proceeds in the trust fund referred to in the act for hospital services to Medi-Cal beneficiaries or other beneficiaries in any other similar federal program shall not be subject to the prohibitions or restrictions in Sections 3 or 5 of this article.
