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 authorizes the department to enter contracts with managed care plans to provide Medi-Cal services, and imposes requirements on the Medi-Cal managed care plans, including network adequacy standards. Under existing law, Medi-Cal covers early and periodic screening, diagnostic, and treatment for individuals under 21 years of age, consistent with federal law.
This bill would require the department to ensure that a Medi-Cal beneficiary who is a child receives blood lead screening tests at specified ages consistent with state regulatory standards, and would require a contract between the department and a Medi-Cal managed care plan to ensure that the Medi-Cal managed care plan and its contracting health care providers who are responsible for performing a periodic health assessment of a child meet specified standard of care requirements relating to blood lead testing. The bill would require the department to report its progress toward blood lead screening tests for Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are children, as specified, annually on its internet website. The bill would require each Medi-Cal managed care plan to establish a monitoring system related to blood lead screening tests, to require its contracting health care providers who are responsible for performing a periodic health assessment of a child to test each child pursuant to specified standards of care for lead testing, to inform a child's parent, parents, guardian, or other person charged with their support and maintenance with specified information, including the risks and effects of lead exposure, and to notify a child's health care provider when that child has missed a required blood lead screening test. The bill would provide that it is the goal of the state that children at risk of lead exposure receive blood lead screening tests.

Statutes affected:
AB 2276: 14132 WIC
02/14/20 - Introduced: 14132 WIC
05/12/20 - Amended Assembly: 14132 WIC
AB2276: 14132 WIC