Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which health care services are provided to qualified, low-income persons. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing law requires the department to notify Medi-Cal beneficiaries, prospective beneficiaries, and members of the public about the program, including the availability of language assistance services and the availability of the grievance procedure.

This bill would require the department to ensure that all written health education and informing materials, as defined, in English and those translated into threshold languages by managed care plans or their subcontractors are at or below the equivalent of 6th-grade reading level. The bill would require the department to require managed care plans, as defined, or their subcontractors to conduct, by January 1, 2020, a one-time, targeted community review of informing materials in threshold languages for which a 6th-grade reading level cannot be determined, in order for members to ensure the cultural and linguistic appropriateness of materials in community-based settings, as specified. The bill would exempt material translated by either the department or its contractors, excluding managed care plans, from the targeted-community review. The bill would require the managed care plans to adopt additional readability and suitability standards developed by the community review process, and would require the managed care plans to apply the adopted standards to health education and informing materials developed on or after July 1, 2020. The bill would require managed care plans to report the findings of the community review process, and would require the department to publish those findings and develop recommendations for additional readability and suitability standards based on the findings, as described. The bill would include a statement of legislative findings and declarations.