California Department of Social Services - State Hearings Division
Notes from the Training Bureau - December 2, 1998

Effective October 1, 1998, Senate Bill 903 mandated a simplified application package and mail-in process for pregnant woman and children and eliminated the requirement for a face-to-face interview. Counties are not permitted to call in every mail-in applicant routinely for a face-to-face interview although a county may schedule a face-to-face interview under certain circumstances. Those circumstances include among other reasons; when the applicant requests such an interview, when there is suspicion of fraud, when the mail-in applicant has not properly completed the application process, or when income is too high to qualify for $0 share of cost Medi-Cal.