The "Senate Bill 853" Clock Just Stopped Ticking 

Did Your California Health Care Plan Make the July 1st Deadline?

If you're responsible for your California health plan's compliance management, you probably know you had until July 1, 2008 to comply with SB 853.

July 1st was the deadline to file amendments to your quality assurance program providing written language assistance program policies and procedures.

But it's not too late to act!

July 1st - Just Published!

Free White Paper - "Are You Speaking My Language?  A Guide for Understanding and Complying with the California Health Care Plan Requirements for Language Interpretation and Translation"

Language Line Services can still make it possible for you file amendments to your quality assurance plan

Today, Language Line Services is consulting with several health plans around the state to help them comply with the requirements of SB 853.

The Language Line Services SB 853 Compliance Program...

...addresses all the components your health plan needs for a well-rounded, comprehensive language assistance program, including:

• Policy planning and development
• 24/7 access to interpreters in over 170 spoken languages and
• American Sign Language
• Member outreach and customer service
• Document translation (including localization of your website)
• Medical interpreter certification, and
• Compliance auditing, among other services

If you let the SB 853 deadline slip, Language Line Services can still help!

“Many of California’s approximately 120 full-service and specialized health plans are preparing to submit their language assistance programs in writing to the Department of Managed Health Care,” reports Jeanette Anders, Health Care Director with Language Line Services.

“The health plans we work with such as Aetna, Blue Cross of California, and Kaiser Foundation, are diligently working to develop and finalize comprehensive language assistance programs for LEP enrollees.”

For the sake of your health care plan's compliance, please act now

For more information about the Language Line Services SB 853 Compliance Program…

Contact us at Comply_With_SB853@languageline.com.

PS:  Did you know?

According to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, 3.4 million of California’s adult HMO enrollees (ages 18 to 64) speak a language other than English at home.

Of those, almost 30 percent report not being able to speak English well or not at all.

This population will see the efforts of California health plans come to fruition by January 1, 2009, the state’s deadline for health plans to implement their language assistance programs.

Contact us now at Comply_With_SB853@languageline.com.