Amended in Senate June 14, 2013

Amended in Senate June 4, 2013

Amended in Assembly April 17, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly BillNo. 505


Introduced by Assembly Member Nazarian

February 20, 2013


An act to add Section 14029.91 to the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to Medi-Cal.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

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-Calbegin delete servicesend deletebegin insert services, except as specified,end insert to provide language assistance services, which includes interpretation and translation services, to limited-English-proficient Medi-Cal beneficiaries, as defined. The bill would require the department to determine when a limited-English-proficient population meets the requirement for translation services, as prescribed.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

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SECTION 1.  

Section 14029.91 is added to the Welfare and
2Institutions Code
, to read:

3

14029.91.  

(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) Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are
7mandatorily enrolled in managed care in the following manner:

8(1) Interpretation services shall be provided in any language on
9a 24-hour basis at all points of service.

10(2) Translation services shall be provided to the language groups
11identified by the department.

12(b) The department shall determine when an LEP population
13meets the requirement for translation services using one of the
14following numeric thresholds:

15(1) A population group of 3,000 Medi-Cal beneficiaries who
16are mandatorily enrolled in managed care, residing in the service
17area, who indicate their primary language as other than English.

18(2) A population group of Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are
19mandatorily enrolled in managed care, residing in the service area,
20who indicate their primary language as other than English, and
21that meet a concentration standard of 1,000 beneficiaries in a single
22ZIP Code or 1,500 beneficiaries in two contiguous ZIP Codes.

23(c) The department shall make this determination if any of the
24following occurs:

25(1) A nonmanaged care county becomes a new managed care
26county.

27(2) A new population group becomes a mandatory Medi-Cal
28managed care beneficiary population.

29(3) A period of three years has passed since the last
30determination.

31(d) The department shall instruct managed care plans, by means
32of incorporating the requirement into plan contracts, all-plan letters,
33or similar instructions, of the language groups that meet the
34numeric thresholds.

P3    1(e) For purposes of this section, a person is
2“limited-English-proficient” if he or she speaks English less than
3very well.

begin insert

4(f) This section shall not apply to mental health plans
5contracting with the department pursuant to Section 14712.

end insert


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