Information For Legislators
“Medical translation and interpretation is not an issue just for the actual medical encounter. It also impacts appointment scheduling, follow-up care, filling a prescription, arranging medical transportation, and being able to communicate in a medical emergency.”
-Manager, Physician’s Office
The Practical
Logic and research indicate that anything that affects communication affects successful health care outcomes.
When language is a barrier:
- Quality of care suffers
- Access to care is reduced
- Cost of care increases
LEP (Limited English Proficient) people receiving care in their own language have better medication and appointment compliance, fewer ED visits and unnecessary tests, and better health outcomes.
The Policy
Poor health care access results in poor health. U.S. regulatory agencies are concerned that lack of language access represents discrimination against LEP individuals.
A number of laws and regulations in place may affect your organization in regard to language access. They include:
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires physicians to make “reasonable accommodations” for persons with any sort of handicap. Interpreters for the hard-of-hearing are specifically mentioned as a “reasonable accommodation”.
1964 Civil Rights Act, Title VI, prohibits programs that accept federal funding from operating programs in such a way as to create discrimination on the basis of race, color, or country of national origin. Language is cited as an aspect of country of national origin. If you receive federal funding, you are required to provide linguistic access.
Resources:
- DATA from MTI surveys & Census Bureau
- MTI Factsheets
- MTI Legislation one pagers