August 1999
Prepared by:
Jane Perkins, National Health Law Program
Explanation for Using this Assessment Tool
This assessment tool is designed to assist managed care plans, consumer advocates, community-based organizations, and other interested persons with surveying managed care contractors' ability to provide linguistically accessible health care services.
The questions in this assessment tool are guided by requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, as set forth in compliance decisions and guidance memoranda from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. Private accreditation standards also address availability of linguistically accessible services. These are incorporated into this tool, as well -- questions marked by * are suggested in the National Committee for Quality Assurance's current set of performance measures, HEDIS 3.0.
In this document, "interpreter services" means the use of qualified interpreters, namely persons who have received some training on medical interpretation and the ethics of interpreting. This does not include friends or family members (particularly adolescents) unless they have received such training.