(a)
The department, in consultation with the State Department of Health Care Services, shall develop and implement a process to use participation data from the Medi-Cal program administered pursuant to Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 14000) of Part 3 of Division 9 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, to verify income as established in the federal Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-265) and, to the extent permitted under federal law, directly certify children whose families meet the applicable income criteria into the school meal program.
(b)
In the operation of this process, the department shall limit the information needed from the State Department of Health Care Services to identify families whose income falls below the eligibility cutoff for free or reduced price meals, and the least amount of information needed to facilitate a match of local school records. The State Department of Health Care Services shall conduct the data match of local school records and return a list to the department, including only the data fields submitted by the department and an indicator of program eligibility, as required by federal law.
(c)
The department and the State Department of Health Care Services shall design this process to maintain pupil privacy and the privacy of Medi-Cal recipients by establishing privacy and confidentiality procedures consistent with all applicable state and federal laws. To the extent permitted by state and federal law, the department and the State Department of Health Care Services may review the data only for the purposes of improving the effectiveness of the data matches made pursuant to this section and Section 49561.
(d)
The department specifically shall ensure that the process conforms to the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-191) by using strategies employed by other states in Medicaid verification projects or by developing a new strategy that ensures conformity.
(e)
The department shall seek all necessary approvals to establish this process and shall apply for available federal funds to support the work of this process.
(f)
This section shall become operative upon the receipt of federal funds to assist the state in implementing the provisions of this section.