CPEHN Accomplishments & History
CPEHN Releases Landscape of Opportunity
Having Our Say Coalition Established
The Having Our Say coalition was founded in 2007 to raise the voices of communities of color in the health reform debate and to advocate for access to quality health care for all.
CPEHN’s Co-Sponsored Bill SB 853 Signed into Law!
In 2003, we led a legislative effort on behalf of millions of Californians whose primary language is not English. Unable to communicate with their health care providers, these patients faced increased risk of misdiagnosis and misunderstanding their treatments. CPEHN co-sponsored groundbreaking legislation, SB 853 (Escutia), which mandates all health plans and insurers in California provide interpreters and translated documents to their members.
CPEHN convinces Department of Managed Health Care to require HMOs to make grievance processes accessible to persons with limited English proficiency
CPEHN wins demand for the Office of the Patient Advocate to include information on health plans’ language services in its HMO Report Card
CPEHN persuades Medi-Cal Managed Care to release policy letters on cultural and linguistic requirements to all health plans
CPEHN successfully advocates for the Healthy Families Program to require interpreters and translated documents and prohibit the use of children as interpreters
CPEHN serves on the Medi-Cal Managed Care Cultural and Linguistic Standards Task Force
CPEHN is Established
In 1992, health advocates and community leaders from four ethnic communities came together to share common goals. At the time, health care reform efforts at the state and national levels provided a unique opportunity to improve the health of communities of color. Yet the violence in South Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict had exposed years of institutional racism and mistrust among ethnic groups.
We recognized the need to bridge the divisions that had grown between our communities and to unite our voices to advocate for a just, equitable, and healthy world. Ethnic health leaders from the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, California Black Health Network, California Rural Indian Health Board, and the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California came together to create a forum to advocate for a common health policy agenda for communities of color: the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network.
