The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive program of managed health care plan services to Medi-Cal recipients residing in the following counties that currently receive Medi-Cal services on a feefor-service basis: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Imperial, Inyo, Lake, Lassen, Mariposa, Modoc, Nevada, Mono, Placer, Plumas, San Benito, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, and Yuba. The director may enter into exclusive or nonexclusive contracts on a bid or negotiated basis with one or more managed health care plans to provide a comprehensive program of managed health care plan services to Medi-Cal recipients residing in the counties. The director shall give special consideration to managed health care plans that Have the lowest administrative costs and Offer a quality improvement program for primary care. The managed health care plans that the department contracts with under this article shall meet quality measures. The department shall have exclusive authority to set the rates, terms, and conditions of managed health care plan contracts and contract amendments under this article. The director may include in the contract a provision for quality assurance withholding from the plan payment, to be paid only if quality measures identified in the plan contract are met. A contract or contract
amendments executed by both parties after the effective date of the act adding this subdivision shall be considered a public record for purposes of the California Public Records Act and shall be disclosed upon request. This subdivision applies to contracts that reveal the department’s rates of payment for health care services, the rates themselves, and rate manuals. Contracts or amendments entered into under this section may be on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and a noncompetitive bid basis and shall be exempt from the specified.