California Health Care Cost, Quality, and Equity Commission: This bill would create the California Health Care Cost, Quality, and Equity Commission, an independent state agency, to control in-state health care costs and set the amounts accepted as payment by health plans, hospitals, physicians, physician groups, and other health care providers, among other things. The bill would provide that funding for the commission would be provided from the Managed Care Fund and the Insurance Fund, subject to appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would provide that the commission would have 11 paid members, including the Secretary of California Health and Human Services or his or her designee, a CalPERS representative, and 9 members with specified experience appointed to staggered 6-year terms by the Governor, Senate Committee on Rules, and Speaker of the Assembly, as specified. The bill would require the commission to convene an advisory committee to meet at least quarterly with 19 volunteer members, including, but not limited to, a representative of a licensed health facility and a representative of CalPERS. The bill would require the commission, beginning July 1, 2019, to annually determine the base amounts that health care entities, as defined, are required to accept as full payment for health care services, and would specify that the base amount for a health care provider shall be a percentage of Medicare rates not lower than 100% of Medicare rates. The bill would permit a health care service plan or health insurer to negotiate a contracted rate that is not based on Medicare rates. The bill would exempt noncontracting physicians and other noncontracting health professionals, as defined, from the base amounts until health care service plans and health insurers provide information on average contracted amounts to the commission and the commission sets a base amount for noncontracting physicians and other noncontracting health professionals. The bill would require the commission, on or before July 1, 2019, to establish an appeal process to consider adjustments to the base amounts to be paid to health care entities, and would require the commission to consider specified factors during an appeal. The bill would require the commission to obtain the information necessary to determine total health care expenditures and to set a global growth cap for total health care expenditures, as specified. The bill would require the commission to obtain the information necessary to determine total health care expenditures and to set a global growth cap for total health care expenditures, as specified.This bill would require the commission to estimate the cost savings to the General Fund from lower health care costs paid by public employers because of this bill, and require the Department of Finance to estimate the cost to increase reimbursement rates, as specified, and estimate how much of those costs could be paid using the estimated cost savings to the General Fund. The bill would express the intent of the Legislature to transfer that cost savings, upon appropriation, to programs that recruit and retain health professionals in underserved areas, as specified. This bill would exempt a Medi-Cal managed health care plan or individuals receiving coverage through Medicare or another federal health program from the bill’s provisions. The bill would prohibit a health care provider from billing or collecting an amount other than the applicable cost sharing from an individual, and would provide that an individual would not owe a health care provider an amount other than that applicable cost sharing. This bill would require all information to be submitted electronically to the commission to facilitate public disclosure, but would provide that specified information be kept confidential.