Medi-Cal: specialty mental health 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. Existing law requires the department to implement managed mental health care for Medi-Cal beneficiaries through contracts with mental health plans, and requires mental health plans to be governed by various guidelines, including a requirement that a mental health plan assess the cultural competency needs of the program. Existing law requires mental health plan reviews to be conducted by an external quality review organization (EQRO) on an annual basis, and requires those reviews to include specific data for Medi-Cal eligible minor and nonminor dependents in foster care, such as the number of Medi-Cal eligible minor and nonminor dependents in foster care served each year. This bill would require each mental health plan to prepare a cultural competence plan to address specified matters, including mental health disparities in access, utilization, and outcomes by various categories, such as race, ethnicity, and immigration status. The bill would require a mental health plan to convene a committee for the purpose of reviewing and approving the cultural competence plan, to annually update its cultural competence plan and progress, to post this material on its internet website, and to submit its cultural competence plan to the department every 3 years for technical assistance and implementation feedback. The bill would require the department to develop at least 8 statewide mental health disparities reduction targets, to post the cultural competence plan submitted by each mental health plan to its internet website, and to consult with the Office of Health Equity to review and implement county assessments and statewide performance on mental health disparities reductions. The bill would require the department to direct the EQRO to develop a protocol for monitoring performance of each mental health plan, and to report on identified matters, including statewide progress related to the mental health disparities reduction targets. The bill would require the EQRO to publish specified information in the annual detailed technical report, such as recommendations for statewide strategies to reduce mental health disparities. The bill would require the mental health plan to meet specified mental health disparities reduction targets or make year-over-year improvements toward meeting the targets.