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, except as specified, to provide language assistance services, which includes oral 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:
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) Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are
7mandatorily enrolled in managed care in the following manner:
8(1) Oral interpretation services shall be provided in any language
9on a 24-hour basis at key points of contact.
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
13
meets the requirement for translation services using one of the
14following numeric thresholds:
15(1) A population group ofbegin delete 3,000end deletebegin insert at least 3,000 or 5 percent of
16the beneficiary population, whichever is fewer, mandatoryend insert
17 Medi-Cal beneficiariesbegin delete who are mandatorily enrolled in managed , residing in the service area, who indicate their primary
18careend delete
19language as other than English.
20(2) A population group ofbegin insert mandatoryend insert Medi-Cal beneficiaries
21begin delete who are mandatorily enrolled in managed careend delete,
residing in the
22service area, who indicate their primary language as other than
23English, and that meet a concentration standard of 1,000
24beneficiaries in a single ZIP Code or 1,500 beneficiaries in two
25contiguous ZIP Codes.
26(c) The department shall make this determination if any of the
27following occurs:
28(1) A nonmanaged care county becomes a new managed care
29county.
30(2) A new population group becomes a mandatory Medi-Cal
31managed care beneficiary population.
P3 1(3) A period of three years has passed since the last
2determination.
3(d) The department shall instruct managed care plans, by means
4of
incorporating the requirement into plan contracts, all-plan letters,
5or similar instructions, of the language groups that meet the
6numeric thresholds.
7(e) For purposes of this section, a person is
8“limited-English-proficient” if he or she speaks English less than
9very well.
10(f) This section shall not apply to mental health plans contracting
11with the department pursuant to Section 14712.
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