AB 505, as amended, 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 managed care plans contracting with the department to provide Medi-Cal services to provide language assistance services, which includes interpretation and translation services, to limited-English-proficientbegin delete enrolleesend deletebegin insert
Medi-Cal beneficiariesend insert, as defined.begin insert The bill would require the department to determine when a limited-English-proficient population meets the requirement for translation services, as prescribed.end insert
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 managed care
4plans contracting with the department to provide Medi-Cal services
5to provide language assistance services to
6limited-English-proficient (LEP)begin delete enrolleesend deletebegin insert Medi-Cal beneficiaries
7who are mandatorily enrolled in managed careend insert in the following
8manner:
9(1) Interpretation services shall be provided in any language on
10a 24-hour basis at all points of service.
11(2) Translation services shall be provided to the
language groups
12identified by the department.
13(b) The department shall determine when an LEP population
14meets the requirement for translation services using one of the
15following numeric thresholds:
16(1) Three thousand LEP persons eligible for Medi-Cal reside
17in the plan’s service area, or 1,000 LEP persons eligible for
18Medi-Cal reside in a single ZIP Code.
19(2) One thousand five hundred LEP
persons eligible for
20Medi-Cal in two contiguous ZIP Codes reside within a health
21plan’s service area.
22(1) A population group of 3,000 Medi-Cal beneficiaries who
23are mandatorily enrolled in managed care, residing in the service
24area, who indicate their primary language as other than English.
25(2) A population group of Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are
26mandatorily enrolled in managed care, residing in the service
27area, who indicate their primary language as other than English,
28and that meet a concentration standard of 1,000 beneficiaries in
29a single ZIP Code or 1,500 beneficiaries in two contiguous ZIP
30Codes.
31(c) The department shall make this determinationbegin delete annually and begin insert
if any of the following occurs:end insertbegin insert end insert
32instructend delete
33(1) A nonmanaged care county becomes a new managed care
34county.
35(2) A new population group becomes a mandatory Medi-Cal
36managed care beneficiary population.
37(3) A period of three years has passed since the last
38determination.
P3 1begin insert(d)end insertbegin insert end insertbegin insertThe department shall instruct managed careend insert
plans, by means
2of incorporating the requirement into plan contracts, all-plan letters,
3or similar instructions,begin insert ofend insert the language groups that meet the
4numeric thresholds.
5(d)
end delete
6begin insert(e)end insert For purposes of this section, a person is begin delete“limited English begin insert “limited-English-proficient”end insert
if he or she speaks English
7proficient”end delete
8less than very well.
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