BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
Senator Ed Hernandez, O.D., Chair
BILL NO: AB 2399
---------------------------------------------------------------
|AUTHOR: |Nazarian |
|---------------+-----------------------------------------------|
|VERSION: |May 31, 2016 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
|HEARING DATE: |June 29, 2016 | | |
---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
|CONSULTANT: |Reyes Diaz |
---------------------------------------------------------------
SUBJECT : Pregnancy: prenatal blood testing
SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Public Health to make informational
material, as specified, available in the languages that meet the
numeric threshold described in current law when providing
language assistance to limited-English-proficient Medi-Cal
beneficiaries, as specified.
Existing law:
1)Establishes the Department of Public Health (DPH) to protect
and improve the health of communities through education,
promotion of healthy lifestyles, and research for disease and
injury prevention. Provides DPH with the authority to perform
activities that protect, preserve, and advance public health,
including studies and dissemination of information.
2)Requires DPH, in consultation with DPH's Office of AIDS and
with other stakeholders, including providers of health care to
women and infants infected with or exposed to human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV), to develop culturally sensitive
informational material, adequate to fulfill specified
requirements, in English, Spanish, and other languages used by
DPH when providing information to clients under the Medi-Cal
program, including the languages required when providing
assistance to limited-English-proficient (LEP) Medi-Cal
beneficiaries.
3)Requires all managed care plans contracting with the
Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to provide language
assistance services to LEP Medic-Cal beneficiaries who are
mandatorily enrolled in managed care. Requires DHCS to
determine when a LEP population meets the requirement for
translation services using one of the following numeric
AB 2399 (Nazarian) Page 2 of ?
thresholds:
a) A population group of at least 3,000 or 5% of
the beneficiary population, whichever is fewer,
mandatory managed care Medi-Cal beneficiaries,
residing in the service area, who indicate their
primary language as other than English; or,
b) A population group of mandatory managed care
Medi-Cal beneficiaries, residing in the service area,
who indicate their primary language as other than
English, and that meet a concentration standard of
1,000 beneficiaries in a single ZIP Code or 1,500
beneficiaries in two contiguous ZIP Codes.
This bill: Requires DPH to make informational material available
in the languages that meet the numeric threshold described in
current law when providing language assistance to LEP Medi-Cal
beneficiaries, as specified.
FISCAL
EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee,
costs to DPH of approximately $30,000 to translate the prenatal
information into the additional languages (Genetic Disease
Fund).
PRIOR
VOTES :
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Assembly Floor: |79 - 0 |
|------------------------------------+----------------------------|
|Assembly Appropriations Committee: |15 - 1 |
|------------------------------------+----------------------------|
|Assembly Health Committee: |Not relevant |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
COMMENTS :
1)Author's statement. According to the author, currently, a
physician engaged in the prenatal care of a pregnant woman is
required to obtain a blood specimen from the woman for
purposes of determining the presence of hepatitis B or HIV.
Existing law also requires DPH to develop culturally sensitive
informational material in English, Spanish, and other
languages to inform a pregnant woman about the purpose of
AB 2399 (Nazarian) Page 3 of ?
obtaining this blood sample. This bill requires that this
informational material will be translated in all of the same
languages in which the Medi-Cal program provides translation
services. This bill will ensure a woman receives the vital
information related to prenatal testing in the language that
she knows best.
2)Background. According to DPH's Office of AIDS Web page, the
Perinatal HIV Prevention Project works to assist prenatal care
providers in administering HIV testing during a pregnant
woman's prenatal care. The information sheet, "Protecting
Yourself and Your Baby," is available on the Office of AIDS
Web page in the following languages: English, Arabic,
Armenian, Cambodian, Chinese, Farsi, Hmong, Japanese, Korean,
Laotian, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. Managed
care plans contracting with DHCS provide language assistance
services to LEP Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are mandatorily
enrolled in managed care when a regional LEP population meets
the certain numeric thresholds.
3)Prior legislation. AB 1676 (Dutra, Chapter 749, Statutes of
2003), required DPH, among other things, in consultation with
the Office of AIDS and other specified organizations, to
develop culturally sensitive informational material concerning
HIV testing and information on available referral and
consultation resources of experts in prenatal HIV treatment.
4)Support. The March of Dimes argues that professional providers
of information should provide counseling that is
non-directive, enabling prospective parents to make decisions
that are right for them as individuals. The March of Dimes
states that this bill will ensure that parents have accurate
information about their options and that information is
presented to them in the appropriate language.
5)Policy comment. Current law already requires Medi-Cal
beneficiaries to receive information in threshold languages as
determined by DHCS. Therefore, the impact of this bill is
unclear.
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION :
Support: March of Dimes
Oppose: None received
AB 2399 (Nazarian) Page 4 of ?
-- END --