What’s happening: Regulations recently adopted by the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) under the Hospital Fair Pricing Policies Law require hospitals to provide “taglines” on patient documents in several different languages.
What else to know: The taglines inform patients that language assistance services are available and how to access them. CHA has included a tagline sheet with translations in 18 languages.
The tagline sheet must accompany:
- Charity care/discounted payment eligibility determination letters (Title 22, California Code of Regulations, Section 96051.2)
- Notices to patients informing them of the availability of financial assistance (Health & Safety Code Section 127410(a))
- Written correspondence to patients required by the Hospital Fair Pricing Policies Law (Health & Safety Code Section 127410(a)) (see the law for additional requirements for correspondence with limited English-speaking patients)
- Notice to a patient that their medical debt is being sent to collections or being sold to a debt buyer (Health & Safety Code Section 127425(e))
For more information, contact Trina Gonzalez, vice president, policy, at tgonzalez@calhospital.org or Lois Richardson, vice president and legal counsel, at lrichardson@calhospital.org.
