Posted on 01/05/2009 8:41:06 AM PST by BGHater
Millions of Californians with limited English proficiency now have the right to an interpreter from their commercial health and dental plans – made possible by a first-in-the-nation law aimed at dismantling the language barriers that get in the way of good medicine.
The new regulation – implemented New Year's Day after five years of hearings, delays and wrangling among insurance companies, regulators and consumer advocates – is widely hailed as a milestone in reducing mistakes because of miscommunication.
"This is really huge, especially in California where we're getting more and more diverse," said Martin Martinez, policy director for the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network. "Even if you speak English well, it's really hard to understand what your doctor is saying."
As many as 7 million Californians – about half of them enrolled in health maintenance organizations, or HMOs – lack English fluency and could benefit from the new language service.
Patients rights advocates applaud the new rules but fear non-English speakers won't be told about the help now available to them. To spread the word, the state is launching a publicity drive in the coming weeks.
"This law has been some time coming," said Anthony Wright, executive director of California Health Access. "Our big concern now is whether people have adequate notice about their rights and can actually use them."
Doctors' orders will now have to be translated, at least orally, into Spanish, Mandarin, Hmong, Russian – any spoken language.
The scope and cost of the task – estimated by insurers to be about $25 million – make it the biggest regulation effort undertaken by the California Department of Managed Health Care, which oversees HMOs.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
...and health care costs continue to skyrocket :(
Interpreters “at their side” or at the other end of a phone connection?
more diverse? looks like california is getting more uniform to me, not diverse.
this will probably soon be the case in Minnesota at voting booths, too.
effin idiots...
Anything for an illegal Mexican vote ——
So true. Next time I'm in a California hospital, I'll ask for an interpreter -- and if they refuse me, I'll sue 'em.
Just because.
I recall a court case in Oregon being delayed due to the lack of interpreter. The defendant demanded an interpeter who spoke Klingon.
But does the state subject themselves to the same regulation?
Can non-English speaking drivers demand a translator be present when they get pulled over for a traffic stop?
The Sac Bee headline is incomplete -
It’s the law: California patients can have an interpreter at their side....and it will cost the rest of you for it!
How soon will the interpreters be unionized?
Geeze. Let’s not give them any ideas.
....but California is BROKE....and can’t pay for this...
That’s next. “No English”....drive away. A Dentist in my neighborhood got a call from the local Immigrant Center that they needed him to work on a “client”. The “client” needed their Interpreter to come along. They billed him for it! He lost almost a $1,000!
“”This is really huge, especially in California where we’re getting more and more diverse,” said Martin Martinez, “
BS. We’re getting more and more MEXICAN. THAT is not diversity! In other countries, they call it ethnic cleansing.
I’ve seen plenty of this out here already. The translator (usually Russian around here) follows the patient around the hospital like a personal valet. Usually the patient just sits around while the translator takes care of all the details at the check-in desk. It really burns me that my insurance premium shoots up every year to pay for this nonsense.
Maybe the state employees will finally wise up as they’re getting layed off....that what they once got, now foreign nationals get!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2159006/posts
CA-Social service workers to get pink slips (213 Food stamp dealers get axed)
Can I get an interpreter for my nephrologist? I speak perfect English but I can barely understand his Chinese-English.
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