Welfare and Institutions Code § 14005.36

14005.36.

(a) (1) (A)The department shall undertake efforts to conduct outreach about work or community engagement requirements, more frequent redeterminations, and changes to retroactive eligibility to impacted Medi-Cal beneficiaries pursuant to changes made under federal H.R. 1 (Public Law 119-21).

(B) The outreach shall include information on how to comply with the work or community engagement requirements, an explanation of the definition of an “applicable individual” as set forth in subsection (xx) of Section 1396a of Title 42 of the United States Code, and those beneficiaries who may be exempted, including any reporting requirements and processes to meet an exemption, and the consequences of noncompliance.

(C) The department shall provide an outreach notice to the beneficiary by mail, or an electronic format if elected by the individual, and by one or more additional formats. Additional formats may include telephone, text message, an internet website, other commonly available electronic means, and other formats that the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services determines appropriate.

(D) Beneficiary outreach and education shall be coordinated across public social services programs to help minimize barriers to administrative disenrollments.

(E) The department shall solicit input from existing department-convened stakeholder workgroup meetings and member advisory boards, to the extent feasible, to help inform member communications and outreach strategies.

(2) (A) The county shall undertake outreach efforts to beneficiaries receiving benefits under this chapter, in order to maintain the most up-to-date home addresses, telephone numbers, and other necessary contact information, and to encourage and assist with timely submission of the annual reaffirmation form, and, when applicable, transitional Medi-Cal program reporting forms and to facilitate the Medi-Cal redetermination process, including the requirements of Public Law 119-21. In implementing this subdivision, a county shall make a good faith effort to collaborate with community-based organizations, provided that confidentiality is protected. A county shall exercise its discretion in determining which community-based organizations are best situated to assist in outreach efforts, particularly in efforts aimed at difficult-to-reach individuals and communities.

(B) The county outreach efforts shall meet cultural and linguistic appropriateness standards, in alignment with the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services.

(b) The department shall encourage and facilitate efforts by managed care plans to report updated beneficiary contact information to counties.

(c) (1) The department and each county shall incorporate, in a timely manner, updated contact information received from managed care plans pursuant to subdivision (b) into the beneficiary’s Medi-Cal case file and into all systems used to inform plans of their beneficiaries’ enrollee status. Updated Medi-Cal beneficiary contact information shall be limited to the beneficiary’s telephone number, change of address information, and change of name.

(2) When a managed care plan obtains a beneficiary’s updated contact information, the managed care plan shall provide the beneficiary’s updated contact information to the appropriate county.

(d) The department shall share beneficiary redetermination data, including the date of redetermination, with applicable managed care plans to aid in managed care plans’ efforts to assist beneficiaries with retaining Medi-Cal coverage, including incorporation into the managed care plans’ outreach and education efforts described in Section 14197.81.

(e) This section shall be implemented only to the extent that federal financial participation under Title XIX of the federal Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. Sec. 1396 et seq.) is available.

(f) To the extent otherwise required by Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, the department shall adopt emergency regulations implementing this section no later than July 1, 2015. The department may thereafter readopt the emergency regulations pursuant to that chapter. The adoption and readoption, by the department, of regulations implementing this section shall be deemed to be an emergency and necessary to avoid serious harm to the public peace, health, safety, or general welfare for purposes of Sections 11346.1 and 11349.6 of the Government Code, and the department is hereby exempted from the requirement that it describe facts showing the need for immediate action and from review by the Office of Administrative Law.