Statement From The California Endowment in Response to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Re-Issue of Policy Guidance on Language Access

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 2003--In response to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services re-issued Policy Guidance on the legal requirement of ensuring access to health and human services for persons who do not yet speak English well enough to communicate effectively with their doctors and other health providers, The California Endowment's President and CEO Robert K. Ross, M.D., today issued the following statement:

"As a private foundation committed to access to quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, we applaud the Bush Administration's continuing leadership and commitment to ensuring language access," said Dr. Robert Ross, president and CEO of The California Endowment. "We will continue to invest in the training and professional development of health care interpreters, the evaluation and implementation of improved and innovative language assistance services such as videoconferencing medical interpretation, as well as supporting health systems, health plans and physicians in assisting their patients in overcoming these challenging language barriers. We believe that public policies like those re-issued by the federal government today are essential to ensuring the highest quality of health care to all of California's diverse communities."

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Approximately one in five, or over six million, Californians face significant language barriers in accessing health care and other vital services. A recent poll conducted by New California Media (and funded by The California Endowment) found that more than one-third of Vietnamese, Koreans, Chinese and Hispanics polled in California say that they have problems understanding a medical situation when it is not explained to them in their own language. Over half of Iranians, Hmong and Hispanics say they are confused by instructions when discharged from hospitals and over half of Hmong, Cambodians and Iranians report problems reading and understanding their prescription medicine labels.

This Policy Guidance again affirms the nearly 40-year-old federal legal requirement to ensure language access contained in Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It provides flexibility to hospitals, health plans and physicians to develop and implement language assistance services that are most appropriate to the Limited English Proficient populations that they serve. For example, language assistance services could be provided through bilingual staff, trained interpreters or telephonic interpreter services. The California Endowment has been working with physicians and other health providers for the past two years through its Medical Leadership Council on Language Access to educate and engage organized medicine in California in ensuring the quality of health care to Limited English Proficient patients.