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Abstract #153490

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Nancy Wongvipat Kalev, MPH, Health Education and Cultural and Linguistics Services, Health Net of California, Inc, 21281 Burbank Blvd, Woodland Hills, CA 91367, Robert O'Reilly, Compliance and Reporting, Health Net of California, Inc, 11931 Foundation Place D, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670, Diana Carr, MA, Cultural and Linguistic Services, Health Net of California, Inc, 1055 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91106, (626) 683-6307, Diana.m.Carr@healthnet.com, and David Friedman, Government Programs, Health Net of California, Inc, 11931 Foundation Place D, Rancho Cordova, CA 95670.

SB 853 was signed into law in 2003 requiring the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) and the California Department of Insurance (CDI) to develop regulations establishing standards and requirements to provide plan enrollees with access to language assistance for health care services.

Information on racial and ethnic characteristics is needed to target quality improvement efforts, identify the nature and extent of disparities, and monitor progress. A key provision of the regulation requires plans to “develop a demographic profile of the plan's enrollee population through identification of an enrollee's preferred spoken and written language, race, and ethnicity. ” The “demographic profile” data is intended to be shared with the provider community and the plan regulators, not only for purposes of providing language assistance services, but also for quality improvement purposes.

In an effort to develop and implement a comprehensive language assistance program, Health Net of California (HNCA) embarked on a complex implementation structure that required the involvement and buy-in of departments and management across the company. The goals were to expand access to language services, improve quality of care and ultimately reduce disparities within the health care setting. The implementation structure included an Executive Committee, Advisory Committee and six functional work groups to implement this two-year project. Challenges and successes of managing and implementing the project, processes of program development, evaluation measures, transportability and applicability of lessons learned will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• 1)Define challenges and identify solutions in implementing language access legislation.
• 2)Identify successes in implementing language access legislation.
• 3)Identify management strategies within a managed care setting that foster effective collaboration with regulators and key stakeholders.

Keywords: Public Health Legislation, Access and Services

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

• Slides (pdf) or Handout
• Multimedia recording