---
type: "Bill"
title: "Hospitals: language assistance services."
description: "(1) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation by the State Department of Public Health of health facilities, including general acute care hospitals. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing law requires those hospitals to adopt and review annually a policy for providing language assistance services to patients with language or communication barriers, as defined. Existing law requires a hospital to annually transmit to the department a copy of its updated policy and to include a description of its efforts to ensure adequate and speedy communication between patients with language or communication barriers and staff."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 389"
citation: "California AB 389 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Hospitals: language assistance services."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Chau"]
version_count: 8
action_count: 25
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2015-02-18"
last_action: "2015-09-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/92519c8e-8ec1-4068-bae2-832898cf507c"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB389"
source_hash: "d8f193a59b5452abe58c4fb70f353bb0e89d28ff3afb0c6ec65187b95e6b1301"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 389 (20152016) — Hospitals: language assistance services.

(1) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation by the State Department of Public Health of health facilities, including general acute care hospitals. A violation of these provisions is a crime. Existing law requires those hospitals to adopt and review annually a policy for providing language assistance services to patients with language or communication barriers, as defined. Existing law requires a hospital to annually transmit to the department a copy of its updated policy and to include a description of its efforts to ensure adequate and speedy communication between patients with language or communication barriers and staff.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/18/15 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB389&version=20150AB38999INT)
2. **04/09/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB389&version=20150AB38998AMD)
3. **06/02/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB389&version=20150AB38997AMD)
4. **06/19/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB389&version=20150AB38996AMD)
5. **09/01/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB389&version=20150AB38995AMD)
6. **09/28/15 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB389&version=20150AB38993CHP)
7. **AB389** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB389)
8. **09/11/15 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB389&version=20150AB38994ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **18–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 389 CHAU Consent Calendar Second Day — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **6–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 389 CHAU Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **78–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB389 Chau By Pan — **40–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Chau — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2015-02-18** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2015-02-19** From printer. May be heard in committee March 21.
- **2015-03-05** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-08** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 18. Noes 0.) (April 7). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-04-09** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-13** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-22** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (April 22). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-04-23** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 1223.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-30** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2015-05-14** Referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee`
- **2015-06-02** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on HEALTH. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-06-03** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2015-06-18** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (June 17). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-06-19** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-06-29** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2015-08-31** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 27). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-09-01** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-09-08** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2581.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-09-08** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending. May be considered on or after September 10 pursuant to Assembly Rule 77.
- **2015-09-09** Assembly Rule 77 suspended. (Page 2990.)
- **2015-09-09** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 3013.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2015-09-17** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2015-09-28** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2015-09-28** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 327, Statutes of 2015.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/92519c8e-8ec1-4068-bae2-832898cf507c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).