CHIA UPDATE - September 2003
September 4, 2003 - REPORT ON MMIA/CHIA PILOT TEST — Three administrators and two test takers who took part in the June MMIA/CHIA pilot certification test will report their on their experience with the testing to CHIA’s Los Angeles Chapter on Saturday, September 13. The meeting will run from 9:30 a..m. – 12:30 p.m. in Weingart Auditorium, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, 4650 Sunset Blvd. (at Vermont). Administrators Azucena Puerta-Diaz, Maria Elena Solórzano, and Beverly Treumann, plus test takers Luisa Taylor and José Escobar will speak and show photos of the pilot test, which tested 45 volunteer interpreters in role playing, oral, and written interpreting skills over three weekends in June in Merced. Those who want to attend should RSVP to beverlytreumann@yahoo.com. For map and program updates, go to www.chia.ws.
CHIA THIRD ANNUAL MEETING AND CONFERENCE DEADLINE APPROACHES: Preregistration for CHIA’s Third Annual Conference will cost more after September 10. To make payment easier, CHIA’s website now accepts credit card payment for both the Annual Meeting and for CHIA membership. The CHIA website also includes postings of the proposed bylaws changes, CHIA board nominations, and name change (to California Healthcare Interpreting Association) that will be voted on at the annual general membership meeting set for Friday, Sept. 26, a day before the annual conference. See you on September 26-27 in Sacramento.
TWO LANGUAGE ACCESS BILLS HEAD TO FLOOR: With just over a week left for the Legislature to approve bills this year, two bills involving language and cultural competency are headed toward their final floor votes. SB 853 (Escutia) requires the state to set standards for language assistance and cultural competency services in healthcare by 2006, although it does not clarify any of the financial issues surrounding the services. SB 853 was approved by the Assembly’s fiscal committee on Sept. 3 by a vote of 17-7 and has moved to the Assembly Floor. Link: SB 853
AB 801 (Diaz) would create a program in which physicians could voluntarily take classes to improve their proficiency in foreign languages and to educate them in the cultural beliefs and practices of California’s various ethnic populations. AB 801 is sponsored by the California Medical Association and California Hispanic Health Care Association. The bill awaits hearing on the Senate Floor. Link: AB 801
The outlook was uncertain this week for AB 292 (Yee), a bill to ban use of interpreters under the age of 15. AB 292 remains on hold in the Senate’s fiscal committee. Link: AB 292
Note on last week’s update: Credit for developing the side-by-side comparison of new and old federal LEP guidances (sent out with the Aug. 25 update) should go to Mara Youdelman at the National Health Law Project (NheLP).
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Septembere 12, 2003 - LANGUAGE ACCESS BILL GOES TO GOVERNOR — SB 853 (Escutia), a bill to require the state to develop regulations ensuring access to language assistance in healthcare, passed off the Assembly Floor this week. And after the Senate concurred in the Assembly’s amendments, the bill was sent to the Governor for signature.
If the Governor signs it, the bill would signal a new era of possiblity for improved healthcare access for LEP Californians. Under SB 853, the state Department of Managed Healthcare (DMHC) must develop regulations by Jan. 1, 2006, setting standards for access to language interpretation services and translated materials in managed care. Similar standards would be developed for Californians with indemnification insurance.
SB 853 broadly spells out how what resources DMHC is to use in developing the regulations, what documents and services must be provided when certain population threshholds are reached, and how DMHC will monitor for compliance. Significantly, the bill allows the regulations to be phased in based on the costs and availability of interpreting and translating services. Governor Davis has until October 12 to act on SB 853.
Link: SB 853
CHIA CO-SPONSORS VENTURA CONFERENCE — CHIA President Beverly Treumann will speak at the Second Annual Conference of the Mixteca-Indigena Community Organization Project on October 16 at the Radisson Hotel, 600 Esplanade Dr., Oxnard. “Understanding the Oaxacan/Mexican Community 2003” is an all-day event that will include panels and workshops dedicated to building bridges beween the Ventura Area Oaxacan population and existing health and social programs. Workshops include “Reducing Barriers to Preventive Health Services,” “Working with Interpreters in the Medical Setting,” and others. Bonnie Bade, Associate Professor of Medical Anthrology, CSU San Marcos, will deliver the keynote address, “ Understanding the Cultural and Transnational Context.” Those wanting more registration forms or more information forms can contact Sandra Young, (805) 385-8662 or email june.english@mail.co.ventura.ca.us
EDITORIAL ON NEED FOR HEALTHCARE INTERPRETERS — Below is an editorial that ran in the Sept. 9 San Francisco Chronicle on the need for healthcare interpreting:
CALIFORNIA CULTURES: Barriers to health
Louis Freeburg
WHEN I CAME to California three decades ago as an immigrant from South Africa, I never realized that my greatest asset was speaking English.
It turns out that not speaking English, or speaking it poorly, is more than a mere inconvenience. It can also be dangerous to your health. Nowhere is this more true than in California where 4 out of 10 of the state's residents speak a language other than English in their homes.
"It is one of the primary barriers immigrants face, certainly to getting quality health care, but sometimes to getting any health care at all," said Dr.
Alice Chen, an internist with Asian Health Services in Oakland.
Talk to Dr. Chen for a few minutes, and out flow a series of horror stories.
A few months ago, for example, she sent a Cantonese-speaking patient to have a biopsy done on a swollen wrist. The patient came back with a bottle of pills, but said she wasn't going to take them because pills made her ill.
It was only when Chen read the label on the bottle that she found out that the patient had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, which had caused the swelling. But because the patient understood little English, she was unaware of her diagnosis. Without treatment, the patient could have become a threat to public health by spreading the contagious disease.
Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, anyone has a right to ask for an interpreter in medical facilities that receive federal funds. And that includes almost any doctor's office that accepts Medicare or Medi-Cal patients.
But a July poll for the New California Media, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco, shows that large numbers of immigrants are unaware of their rights. Just insisting that immigrants learn English also won't help. The poll found that most immigrants had already taken English classes.
There are few easy solutions to the problem. Interpreter services -- whether a live person or using AT&T's telephone-translation services -- are very expensive. And doctors get no reimbursement for providing these services.
Often immigrants bring a family member with them to translate. That can help -- but is often a problem when the family member is a young child who has to translate sensitive medical information.
States can apply to the federal government for matching funds to pay for some interpreter services. But because of the costs, only nine states -- not including California -- have done so.
At the same time, the issue is too fundamental to ignore. Last month, even the Bush administration -- its Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services -- issued long awaited guidelines that reaffirm the right of limited-English speakers to interpreter services.
The guidelines underscore the importance of initiatives such as the one sponsored by the California Endowment, a private health-care foundation. Over the last five years, the endowment has awarded $16 million in grants to ensure that a lack of English doesn't translate into a lack of health care.
But much more needs to be done. The Tower of Babel that exists in doctors' offices is a largely hidden challenge facing California as it come to terms with its celebrated diversity. Meaningful access to health care is not a luxury but a basic civil right.
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