Earlier this year, the California Medical Association (CMA) worked with the Governor and legislature to secure $1.3 billion in the state budget to provide retention bonuses for California’s physicians and other health care providers. The retention bonuses, of up to $1,000, will be available to employees of hospitals, clinics that are 1206(l)s and affiliated with a hospital, or skilled nursing facilities and physicians who provide patient care in those facilities during the eligibility period, which ran from July 30 to October 28, 2022.

The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) will be administering the health care worker retention bonus payments. DHCS has created a two-step process to receive a retention bonus.

Step 1: Register

In the first step, qualifying independent/solo physicians will need to register with DHCS. If you are a physician employed by a medical group or other eligible health care facility, your employer is required to apply on your behalf; therefore, you should not register/apply on your own. Contact your employer for more information.

The deadline to register is December 21, 2022, but we encourage you to do so as soon as possible to minimize delays.

Step 2: Apply

Once you have successfully registered, you will also need to submit an application. The application portal opened on November 29, 2022. All requests for payment must be submitted by December 30, 2022.

DHCS anticipates issuing payments in January 2023. 

Questions?

The California Medical Association (CMA) recently cohosted a webinar with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to provide physicians and physician groups with an overview of the Hospital and Skilled Nursing Facility COVID-19 Worker Retention Payments. The free one-hour webinar is now available on-demand.

During the webinar, DHCS discusses who is eligible for the bonus payment and provides an overview of the registration and application processes.

Click here to download the on-demand webinar

For more details on the process and what information is required, click here.  

CMA will be closely monitoring the registration/application processes and will provide additional information as it becomes available.