Report 2018-111 Recommendation Responses
Report 2018-111: Department of Health Care Services: Millions of Children in Medi-Cal Are Not Receiving Preventive Health Services (Release Date: March 2019)
Recommendation for Legislative Action
To improve children's access to preventive health services, the Legislature should amend state law to direct DHCS to modify its criteria for evaluating plans' alternative access standards requests to include not only whether plans' efforts were reasonable but also whether the resulting times and distances are reasonable to expect a Medi-Cal beneficiary to travel.
Description of Legislative Action
AB 1642 (Chapter 465, Statutes of 2019) requires DHCS, when evaluating an alternative access standard request, to evaluate and determine whether the resulting time and distance is reasonable to expect a beneficiary to travel to receive care.
- Legislative Action Current As-of: October 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Legislation Enacted
Description of Legislative Action
AB 1642 (Wood) would require, in part, a Medi-Cal managed care plan to provide to DHCS additional information in its request for the alternative access standards, including a description of the reasons justifying the alternative access standards.
- Legislative Action Current As-of: May 2019