Ventura County  
Health Care Plan

All of California’s licensed, health care plans, including the Ventura County Health Care Plan, as well as specialized plans (such as vision or dental plans), are required by law to develop and implement a “Language Assistance Program”. Each health care plan has designed their programs based upon their members’ needs.

The ‘Latino Commission for a Healthy California’ estimates that there are 6 to 7 million limited English proficient individuals living in California, and more than 40% of Californians don’t speak English at home. As a result of this language diversity, there are millions of individuals who are faced with language and cultural barriers when seeking health care and whose quality of care may be jeopardized as a consequence of these barriers.

The legislation that mandates this program requires health plans to provide language assistance services to their enrollees with limited English proficiency in order to alleviate these language and cultural barriers. Under this legislation, the agency that regulates HMOs was charged with formulating the language assistance program regulations and ensuring health plan providers’ compliance with those regulations. The legislation stipulates that all vital documents must be translated into “threshold” languages and interpretation services made available to enrollees at all points of contact. The health plan regulatory agency will also periodically review health plan providers’ language assistance programs to evaluate their compliance and cultural competency.