RIAFP Policy
Brief: 3/19/01
Access to
Medical Translation Services
Rhode Island
is ethnically diverse. 10.7 percent of the population is either Hispanic/Latino,
African American, Native American or Asian/Pacific Islander. The largest
minority group is Latino and they comprise 6% of the population. According
to the 1990 census data, 37% of Latinos spoke English poorly or not
at all and 78% spoke only Spanish at home.
For those patients
who do not speak or understand English well, quality health care can
be compromised. They need to have an interpreter in order to access
our health care system, preferably one who is a native speaker of
the patient's language and fluent in English.
But providing
interpretation is both costly and time consuming, and especially in
today's managed care environment, many providers cannot bear the cost
of providing these services to patients without adequate reimbursement.
Thus they are, in effect, penalized for providing good patient care
for their non-English speaking patients. Although some managed care
organizations provide over the telephone translation services, they
are not well received because of their tedious, time-consuming, and
non-user friendly reputation.
The state of
Washington has found a solution to this equal access problem. Washington
allows practices, either private or governmental, to serve non-English
speaking patients by permitting billing to Medicaid for the translation
services of non-physician interpreters. These translators can be either
professional or employees of the practice.
RIAFP strongly
encourages the legislature in the State of Rhode Island to study the
Washington program, and supports the reimbursement of interpreter
services to those providers who choose to offer this additional service
for the many non-English speaking people of our state.
This is one
in a series of reports designed to advance Family Practice and primary
care in Rhode Island's health care system, as well as to discuss public
health issues of importance to all Rhode Islanders.
We welcome
the opportunity to further discuss the issues presented here. We can
be reached by phone at 401-453-4176, or by email at info@riafp.org.
3/19/01
