Mental health services.

Existing law provides for the licensing and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care. Existing law provides for the regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance. A willful violation of provisions governing health care service plans is a crime. Existing law imposes certain requirements on health care service plans, specialized health care service plans, and health insurers that provide coverage for professional mental health services. Existing law also requires every health care service plan, other than a plan that primarily serves Medi-Cal or Healthy Family Program enrollees, to maintain an Internet Web site. This bill would, on and after July 1, 2011, require every health care service plan, including a specialized health care service plan, and health insurer that provides professional mental health services to issue an identification card, as specified, to each enrollee in order to assist the enrollee with accessing health benefits coverage information and other information, with specified exceptions. The bill would require the identification card to be issued upon enrollment or commencement of coverage or upon any change in the enrollee's coverage that impacts the data content or format of the card. The bill would also require those plans and insurers to provide, on or before January 1, 2012, specified information on their Internet Web sites, to be updated as specified and made available in hard copy upon request, and would require those insurers to establish Internet Web sites for that purpose. The bill would exempt from those requirements specified plans or insurers that contract with another entity to provide coverage for mental health services, provided that the plan or insurer provides a link on its Internet Web site to the entity's Internet Web site and that entity complies with the above-described information requirements. The bill would also require the departments to include on their Internet Web sites a link to the Internet Web site of each of those plans or insurers. The bill would also make changes to related provisions. By imposing new requirements on certain health care service plans, the willful violation of which would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.