California law requires health plans to provide language assistance program (LAP) services to eligible customers with limited English proficiency (LEP).
To support this requirement, we developed the California Language Assistance Program and provide language assistance services for eligible Cigna Healthcare plan participants, including those covered by our California health maintenance organization (HMO), Network Open Access, and Network Point of Service plans, as well as for individuals covered under insured California-sitused preferred provider organization plans and Cigna Open Access Plans®.
LAP-eligible customers are entitled to the following free services:
- Interpreter services at each point of contact, such as at a provider’s office or when calling Cigna Healthcare.
- Spanish or Traditional Chinese translation of documents considered vital according to California law.
- Notification of rights to LAP services.
Provider responsibilities
Activities that contracted providers are responsible for include, but are not limited to:
- Including the LAP notification in English vital documents sent to individuals with Cigna Healthcare HMO plan coverage.
- Offering telephone interpreter services to support LEP patients with Cigna Healthcare plan coverage. For free telephonic interpreter services, call the language interpretation line at 800.806.2059.If the patient refuses to use a trained interpreter, it must be documented in his or her medical record.
- Supplying the following grievance form and brochure to customers who communicate dissatisfaction with the services or care received, a utilization management decision, or a claim denial.
- California Medical Grievance Form: English | Spanish | Traditional Chinese
- California Grievance Brochure: English | Spanish | Traditional Chinese
For additional information:
- Review the California Language Assistance Program web page.
- Download the provider training presentation about LAP regulations and how to access language services for your patients with Cigna coverage.
- If you are a Cigna Healthcare-participating provider, refer to the California edition of the Cigna Healthcare Reference Guide for physicians, hospitals, ancillaries, and other providers by logging in to the Cigna for Health Care Professionals website (CignaforHCP.com) > Resources > Reference Guides > Medical Reference Guides > Health Care Professional Reference Guides.
- Contact Provider Relations.
Racial and linguistic diversity at a glance
We collect language preference, race, and ethnicity data for California-eligible customers.
Language
We use California demographic data as a proxy for our customer base until we have a statistically valid number of customer language preference records. The data listed below is currently available for the most non-English spoken languages by individuals over age five in California.*
43.9% speak a language other than English*
28.2% speak Spanish
9.9% speak Asian and Pacific Island languages
Racial and ethnic composition
The data below is an indirect estimation of our California customers. The figures were derived from a methodology that uses a combination of census geocoding and surname recognition.
50.8% Caucasian
23.0% Hispanic
24.0% Asian/Pacific Islander
2.2% Black/African American
* 2022 5-Year American Community Survey. U.S. Census Bureau. December 2022 Retrieved from https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=California&t=Language%20Spoken%20at%20Home&hidePreview=false&tid=ACSST1Y2019.S1601&vintage=2018.