BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 388 Page 1 Date of Hearing: July 15, 2015 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Jimmy Gomez, Chair SB 388 (Mitchell) - As Amended July 6, 2015 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Policy |Health |Vote:|18 - 0 | |Committee: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------+-------------------------------+-----+-------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable: No SUMMARY: This bill designates the uniform summary of benefits and coverage (SBC) information that must be provided to consumers by health plans and health insurers as a vital document, thereby SB 388 Page 2 requiring it to be provided in certain languages other than English. FISCAL EFFECT: 1)Estimated one-time costs of $350,000 (Managed Care Fund) to the Department of Managed Health Care for translation, policy development, and technical assistance to plans regarding issues related to using the templates. 2)Similar one-time costs for similar activities at the Department of Insurance, as well as $60,000 ongoing to ensure compliance (Insurance Fund). COMMENTS: 1)Purpose. According to the author, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires plans and insurers to provide consumers with an easy to understand SBC to help them evaluate and compare their health insurance options. The SBC includes key features of coverage, such as covered benefits, cost-sharing provisions, and coverage limitations as well as a standard glossary of terms. Unfortunately, federal standards on translating the SBC are inconsistent with California's translation requirements. The author states that this bill makes clear that translation of the SBC must be consistent with California's current language access laws, helping to ensure that more Californians are informed about their health coverage options and have equal access to critical information about their health care. SB 388 Page 3 2)Background. A range of federal and state laws and regulations apply to language access for consumer documents produced by a health plan or insurer documents. Federal law requires carriers to provide enrollees with a uniform SBC, which provides information about covered services, cost sharing, and other key information about the enrollee's health care coverage. Federal law requires the uniform SBC to be translated into non-English languages when 10 percent or more of the population of the enrollees' county speaks that language. Under federal law, only Spanish and Chinese meet the thresholds requiring translation. State law requires vital documents to be translated into ten languages (Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Russian, Armenian, Khmer, Arabic, and Hmong). Analysis Prepared by:Lisa Murawski / APPR. / (916) 319-2081