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.

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

In the second step, the application portal will open on November 29, 2022, and all requests for payment must be submitted by December 30, 2022. DHCS anticipates issuing payments in January 2023. 

Questions? CMA will be hosting a webinar on November 17, 2022, where DHCS staff will  provide an overview of and answer questions about eligibility and the registration/application process. You can see additional details and register here.

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.