Bill Text: CA AB505 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Medi-Cal: managed care: language assistance services.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2014-09-29 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 788, Statutes of 2014. [AB505 Detail]

Download: California-2013-AB505-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 505	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


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 introduced, 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 Medi-Cal
managed care plans contracting with the department to provide
language assistance services, which includes interpretation and
translation services, to limited-English-proficient enrollees, as
defined.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 14029.91 is added to the Welfare and
Institutions Code, to read:
   14029.91.  (a) The department shall require all Medi-Cal managed
care plans contracting with the department to provide language
assistance services to limited-English-proficient (LEP) enrollees in
the following manner:
   (1) Interpretation services shall be provided in any language on a
24-hour basis at all points of service.
   (2) Translation services shall be provided to the language groups
identified by the department.
   (b) The department shall determine when an LEP population meets
the requirement for translation services using one of the following
numeric thresholds:
   (1) Three thousand persons eligible for Medi-Cal reside in the
plan's service area, or 1,000 LEP persons eligible for Medi-Cal
reside in a single zip code.
   (2) One thousand five hundred persons eligible for Medi-Cal in two
contiguous zip codes reside within a health plan's service area.
   (c) The department shall make this determination annually and
instruct plans, by means of incorporating the requirement into plan
contracts, all plan letters, or similar instructions, the language
groups that meet the numeric thresholds.
   (d) For purposes of this section, a person is "limited English
proficient" if he or she speaks English less than very well.