BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair 2015 - 2016 Regular Session SB 388 (Mitchell) - Solicitation and enrollment ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Version: February 25, 2015 |Policy Vote: HEALTH 8 - 0 | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes | | | | |--------------------------------+--------------------------------| | | | |Hearing Date: May 4, 2015 |Consultant: Brendan McCarthy | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. Bill Summary: SB 388 would designate the uniform summary of benefits and coverage information, which must be provided to consumers by health plans and health insurers, a vital document. That would require health plans and health insurers to provide the document in certain languages other than English. Fiscal Impact: One-time administrative costs likely between $150,000 and $300,000 to develop policies and translate template documents by the Department of Insurance (Insurance Fund). One-time administrative costs of about $200,000 to develop policies and translate template documents by the Department of Managed Health Care (Managed Care Fund). SB 388 (Mitchell) Page 1 of ? Background: Under current law, health insurers and health plans (collectively referred to as "carriers") are required to provide consumers with certain vital documents, such as application forms, consent forms, and certain notices, in "threshold languages". The threshold depends on the size of the plan's enrollment and the number of limited-English proficient enrollees. Currently there are ten threshold languages in the state (Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Russian, Armenian, Khmer, Arabic, and Hmong). In addition, state law requires carriers to translate certain documents, including the uniform summary of benefits and coverage, into non-English languages if the carrier markets coverage in that non-English language. This requirement applies to languages which are not threshold languages. Federal law requires carriers to provide enrollees with a uniform summary of benefits and coverage, which provides information about covered services, cost sharing, and other key information about the enrollee's health care coverage. Federal law requires the uniform summary of benefits and coverage to be translated into non-English languages when 10 percent or more of the population of the enrollees county speaks that language. The federal standard is less stringent than state law for translation of vital documents. Under federal law, only Spanish and Chinese meet the thresholds requiring translation of the uniform summary of benefits and coverage into those languages. Whereas, current state law requires vital documents to be translated into ten languages. Proposed Law: SB 388 would designate the uniform summary of benefits and coverage information, which must be provided to consumers by health plans and health insurers, a vital document. That would require health plans and health insurers to provide the document in certain threshold languages other than English. The bill would require the Department of Insurance and the SB 388 (Mitchell) Page 2 of ? Department of Managed Health Care to post written translations of the template uniform summary of benefits and coverage in the threshold languages by January 1, 2016. Related Legislation: SB 353 (Lieu, Statutes of 2013) requires the translation of specified documents into a non-English languages when a carrier markets or advertises health care coverage in that language. Staff Comments: The only costs that may be incurred by a local agency relate to crimes and infractions. Under the California Constitution, such costs are not reimbursable by the state. -- END --