Medi-Cal materials: readability.

Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and 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. Existing law requires the department to notify Medi-Cal beneficiaries, prospective beneficiaries, and members of the public of the availability of language assistance services free of charge and in a timely manner, when those services are necessary to provide meaningful access to individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) . Existing law requires the department to require all managed care plans contracting with the department to provide Medi-Cal services to provide language assistance services to LEP Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are mandatorily enrolled in managed care. This bill would, commencing January 1, 2020, require the field testing of all Medi-Cal beneficiary materials, and informing materials, as defined, that are translated into threshold languages and released by the department and managed care plans, respectively, except as specified. The bill would define "field testing" as a review of translations for accuracy, cultural appropriateness, and readability. The bill would also define a "managed care plan" for these purposes. The bill would also require the department to consult with stakeholders to identify at least 10 documents that are released to Medi-Cal beneficiaries, including certain documents, and to designate a readability expert to revise those documents, as specified. The bill would require the readability expert and the stakeholders to provide the department with specific recommendations for revising the selected documents to improve the readability of the documents. The bill would require the department to rerelease the documents with revisions based on those recommendations, and would require the translation and field testing of those documents. The bill would require the implementation of these provisions no later than January 1, 2021.