California Bill - AB 800 (Feb. '06)

AB 800, introduced by Assembly member Leland Yee, requires all primary care clinics and all health facilities, including hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities, and correctional treatment centers, to include a patient’s principal spoken language on the patient’s health records.  Any long-term health care facility that already completes the minimum data set form, which includes documentation of a patient’s principal spoken language, is deemed to be in compliance of this requirement. 

The bill recognizes that communication is a primary and basic skill needed for successful medical diagnosis and treatment and that a key component of communication is the patient’s primary language.  It is hoped that recording the patient’s primary language in the patient’s record will help ensure that the health facility provides the appropriate language assistance services, including interpreters, to its limited-English proficient patients.