Assembly Bill 2739 (Chan)
Codification of the Existing Healthy Families and Medi-Cal Managed Care Programs’
Language Assistance and Cultural Competence Policies
This Bill would:
- Ensure that the diverse beneficiaries of the Healthy Families Program (HFP) and Medi-Cal Managed Care program (MMC) are provided linguistically accessible and culturally appropriate medical care by codifying and making more uniform the existing language assistance and cultural competence requirements now placed by contract on the health plans participating in HFP and MMC.
- E nsure that the same language assistance and cultural competence requirements apply to all health plans participating in HFP; ensure that the same language assistance and cultural competence requirements apply to all health plans participating in MMC .
- Make more uniform the language assistance and cultural competence requirements between HFP and MMC so that HFP and MMC beneficiaries receive the same level of linguistically accessible and culturally appropriate services and so that the health plans and medical care providers participating in both HFP and MMC may more easily comply with the requirements.
Background:
- The language assistance and cultural competence requirements now appear in the contracts privately negotiated between the health plans and the state agencies responsible for HFP and MMC, MRMIB and DHS, respectively, as well as in policy letters issued by the DHS.
- Eighty percent of the three million MMC beneficiaries are racial/ethnic minorities; nearly 45% speak a primary language other than English. Eighty-four percent of the 520,000 HFP subscribers are racial/ethnic minorities; almost 50% speak a primary language other than English.
This Bill addresses the following issues:
- Without codification, the language assistance and cultural competence requirements that now appear in contract could arbitrarily be weakened in the future, putting at risk tens of thousands of California beneficiaries who rely on linguistically accessible and culturally appropriate medical care.
- HFP and MMC beneficiaries currently receive different levels of language assistance and cultural competence services.
- The current level of the HFP and MMC health plans’ compliance with the language assistance and cultural competence requirements in their contracts is unclear.
Status: Vetoed on September 22, 2002.
Sponsors: A coalition of groups including the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, National Health Law Program, Asian andPacific American Legal Center, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the National Council of La Raza , Fresno Health Consumer Center, California Primary Care Association.
