While limited English-speaking populations are on the rise in the United States and language barriers are a growing problem in the exam room, many health care organizations eschew interpreter services because of costs. A study in the October 2011 issue of Health Affairs finds, however, that a group of California hospitals offering shared remote interpreter services were able to ease their financial burden while reducing health care disparities.
The observational study, "Shared Networks of Interpreter Services, at Relatively Low Cost, Can Help Providers Serve Patients With Limited English Skills," supported by CHCF, calculated how much it cost eight public hospitals to offer video and telephone interpreter services through the Health Care Interpreter Network (HCIN), a collaboration of public and nonprofit hospitals. Notably, researchers found that network interpreter services were more comprehensive than what hospitals could offer individually and less costly than those offered through an independent vendor.
Key findings include:
- An average 10-minute encounter between an interpreter, patient, and medical provider cost the HCIN an average of $25, compared to an estimated $15 to $59 for remote interpreting services offered through an independent vendor.
- The most expensive encounters involved the interpretation of rare languages, such as Mien and Laotian. The least expensive languages were Spanish and Mandarin.
- Patients were given access to expensive interpreters for infrequently encountered languages, which would have been difficult to achieve in an individual setting.
The study was led by Elizabeth A. Jacobs, associate vice chair for Health Services Research in the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Its authors conclude that because linguistic access services are often viewed as an unfunded mandate, policymakers must do more to develop financial incentives for providers, such as a combination fee-for-service and broker model. The HCIN began pilot testing in August 2005 with funding from CHCF and others.
The complete article is available free of charge on the Health Affairs site through the External Link below.