AB 505, as introduced, Nazarian. Medi-Cal: managed care: language assistance services.
Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Under existing law, one of the methods by which Medi-Cal services are provided is pursuant to contracts with various types of managed care plans.
This bill would require the department to require all Medi-Cal managed care plans contracting with the department to provide language assistance services, which includes interpretation and translation services, to limited-English-proficient enrollees, as defined.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 14029.91 is added to the Welfare and
2Institutions Code, to read:
(a) The department shall require all Medi-Cal
2managed care plans contracting with the department to provide
3language assistance services to limited-English-proficient (LEP)
4enrollees in the following manner:
5(1) Interpretation services shall be provided in any language on
6a 24-hour basis at all points of service.
7(2) Translation services shall be provided to the language groups
8identified by the department.
9(b) The department shall determine when an LEP population
10meets the requirement for translation services using one of the
11following numeric thresholds:
12(1) Three thousand persons eligible for Medi-Cal reside in the
13plan’s service area, or 1,000 LEP persons eligible for Medi-Cal
14reside in a single zip code.
15(2) One thousand five hundred persons eligible for Medi-Cal
16in two contiguous zip codes reside within a health plan’s service
17area.
18(c) The department shall make this determination annually and
19instruct plans, by means of incorporating the requirement into plan
20contracts, all plan letters, or similar instructions, the language
21groups that meet the numeric thresholds.
22(d) For purposes of this section, a person is “limited English
23proficient” if he or she speaks English less than very well.
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