Picking Your Best Option for Patient Interpretation Services
AMedNews.com interviewed our Managing Partner, Eric Dickerson on a recent topic that is creating a lot of buzz in the healthcare industry. How picking an interpreter for the doctor, patient language barrier is essential for accurate communication.
Picking your best option for patient interpretation services
Doctors must provide interpreters by law, but without support from insurers or the government, choosing the best setup may depend on the practice’s patient mix.
By KAREN CAFFARINI — Posted Aug. 5, 2013.
More than 55 million people over age 5 living in the United States speak a language other than English at home. Of that number, 9 million don’t speak English very well, and 4.5 million don’t speak any English at all, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Given these numbers, and the fact that immigration is no longer limited to urban areas and border states, chances are good that someone whose first language is not English will walk into your practice seeking medical care. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, limited English proficiency patients have the right to a trained interpreter, and practices are supposed to comply. But, as with many other mandates, most insurance companies and the federal government don’t pay for these services, which can be expensive.
There are several interpretive options practices can use to accommodate such patients, some of which are free, and all have advantages and disadvantages. Among the options:
Dependence on relatives and friends
Because of the potential costs of outside services, many practices rely on patients’ family members and acquaintances to be interpreters between doctor and patient.
The advantages are that their services are free, and the patient often is more comfortable with the relative present. “The family member is usually in that role [of interpreter] anyway,” said Susan Childs, a health care consultant in Raleigh, N.C. Disadvantages include confidentiality issues, the fact that the relative probably doesn’t know medical terminology, and the possibility that the doctor’s words aren’t always relayed to the patient correctly.
“This is the simplest and easiest way to interpret, but it requires a level of trust that the physician needs to put in the family member,” said Eric Dickerson, a health care recruiter in Plano, Texas.