Assembly Bill 1195 went into effect on July 1, 2006. It mandates that: ‘continuing medical education courses (that relate specifically to direct patient care) include subjects of cultural and linguistic competency in the practice of medicine’.
    As part of this new regulation California, Chapter 1 of the American Academy of Pediatrics publishes a review of the Federal and State law pertaining to linguistic access for your reference.
    The Civil Rights Act of 1964 under title 42, Public Health and Welfare, Chapter 21, Civil Rights, of the United States Code states that:
    ‘All persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin.’
    The State of California Government Code, section 7291 states that: ‘substantial numbers of persons who live, work and pay taxes in this state are unable, either because they do not speak or write English at all, or because their primary language is other than English, effectively to communicate with their government… As a consequence, substantial numbers of persons presently are being denied rights and benefits to which they would otherwise be entitled.’
    AB 1195 is derived from the above landmark legislation and strives to provide non-English speaking patients with equal medical services that may be lacking if the patient is unable to communicate effectively with his/her healthcare provider.
    To read the above legislation in full you can find the Federal Code at: www.gpoaccess.gov/uscode/browse.html and the State Code at: http://spb.ca.gov/bilingual/dymallyact.htm.