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Are you a Health Care Provider, Hospital or Health System Compliance or Risk Manager?


Then you probably know that the Senate Bill 853 California Language Assistance Program raised the level of awareness of laws that govern the use of interpreters, bilingual staff and translated documents

However, many physicians and other health care professionals are not familiar with language access. Language barriers, or the use of untrained interpreters, may result in medical errors and decreased quality of care.

Clear, concise accurate doctor-patient communication will facilitate the delivery of high-quality care and reduce time with providers, unnecessary visits to the emergency room, or unnecessarily prescriptions.

Language Line® University testing and training services...


...can certify that your bilingual doctors, physicians, nurses and administrative staff are qualified to interpret and ensure your organization's compliance with:
  • HIPAA
  • The Joint Commission
  • CLAS Standards
  • CA LAP - SB 853, and
  • Other pending legislation as it becomes law

Progressive health systems and the NCQA are starting to rate their physicians fluency to improve patient care and mitigate risk management. 

Language Line Services and it's testing/training/certification division Language Line University can ensure that at any point of contact your patients will have access to a qualified interpreter.

PS:  Did you know?

According to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, 3.4 million of California’s adult HMO enrollees (ages 18 to 64) speak a language other than English at home.

Of those, almost 30 percent report not being able to speak English well or not at all.

This population saw the efforts of California health plans come to fruition on January 1, 2009, the state’s deadline for health plans to implement their language assistance programs.


Read relevant press releases

 

Pending legislation, regulations and agreements that can impact your business


It is well documented that patients with limited fluency in English have gaps in healthcare that affect their access and quality of care. Clear doctor-patient communication in the patients preferred language is critical to ensuring high-quality healthcare and patient safety throughout the healthcare delivery system.

This is no longer a regional issue and as a result many States are looking at legislation that will eliminate language barriers, improve access, reduce disparities and improve quality of healthcare. The implementation of the California Senate Bill 853 requires health plans to develop a formal Language Assistance Program to address these issue for their members at the doctors’ office, clinics or other specialists facility.


Language Line Services tracks related legislation...


...that can affect your business and your customers we are sign up for our free healthcare newsletter to keep abreast of new developments.
Helpful links…

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National Health Law Program - http://www.healthlaw.org/

The Joint Commission - http://www.jointcommission.org/

The National Committee for Quality Assurance - http://www.ncqa.org/

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Limited English Proficiency - http://www.lep.gov/

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - http://www.cms.hhs.gov

Office of Minority Health Resource Center - http://www.omhrc.gov

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality - http://www.ahrq.gov/

Office for Civil Rights - http://hhs.gov/ocr/index.html

United States Department of Justice - http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/cor/coord/titlevistat.php

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National Academy for State Health Policy - http://www.nashp.org/

National Association of Insurance Commissioners - http://www.naic.org/

Health Affairs - http://content.healthaffairs.org/

The Access Project  - http://www.accessproject.org/language.html

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - http://www.rwjf.org/

The California Endowment – http://www.calendow.org/

Kaiser Daily Health Report - http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_hpolicy.cfm

National Health Plan Collaborative - http://www.nationalhealthplancollaborative.org/

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Recently the NY Attorney General Mario Cuomo reached an agreement with the two largest pharmacies in the country to require language access at the store level.