New and revised Joint Commission requirements for language and interpretation standards took effect this month on a year-long pilot basis for healthcare providers nationwide. The aim is to improve patient-provider communication and ensure patient safety. Among the requirements: Proof of interpreter training and fluency competence, which is often difficult to...

The National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters announced today that the State of Oregon has become the first state in the nation to officially adopt and endorse the Certification for Medical Interpreters (CMI) through the National Board.

Patients in the United States with limited English proficiency...

The release this past week of the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) makes it clear that America's ethnic makeup is changing much quicker than ever before, raising questions about how we as a country should support the evolving needs of a truly multicultural population.

The suburbs are...

The Supreme Court of Georgia's ruling today that defendants with limited ability to speak English have a constitutional right to court interpreters is an important victory for one in five legal U.S. residents who have trouble with the language. The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia and Legal...

Two bills recently introduced in Congress take on the issue of employee misclassification which puts companies that properly classify their workers at a competitive disadvantage and costs the government and taxpayers billions in unpaid taxes. Both bills deserve the full support of our elected officials and neither is getting enough...

More than 60 million people - about one in five legal U.S. residents - speak a language other than English at home, and it's not all Spanish, with more than 176 different languages and dialects spoken across the country. Not having the right support in place to overcome language barriers...

With the federal government continuing to face record deficits, it's time for the IRS to get serious about the practice of employee misclassification, which will continue to add billions in tax losses if left unchecked, thus causing widespread damage to our nation's economy.

Misclassifying actual employees as independent contractors...

As the Democrats begin to worry about the potential impact on Fall elections of the Obama administration's lawsuit against the Arizona immigration law, this is no time to back off. Decisive action and leadership from the top is a must in a country whose racial and ethnic makeup is evolving...

The case of Francisco Torres, a Spanish-speaking patient in Riverside, Cali., who had the wrong kidney removed during surgery, once again gives the medical community reason to pause and consider the absolute necessity clear communication plays in avoiding catastrophic medical errors. While wrong-site surgery can happen without a...

Scrutiny of Arizona's new immigration law SB1070 continues to heat up with everyone from President Obama to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, even Republican candidate for Senate Marco Rubio in Florida denouncing it while at the same time legislators in at least 10 states including Utah, Oklahoma, Colorado, Ohio, Missouri,...

Nine states currently offer an English-only written driver's license test and at least three others - Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee - are actively pursuing legislation to join that list. Those in favor of such laws say not speaking English is a safety issue on the roads. Their counterparts say it...

The federal Civil Rights Act requires state courts that receive federal funds (virtually all of them) to provide properly-credentialed interpreters in all civil and criminal cases of limited English proficient (LEP) individuals here legally in the United States. The constitutional guarantees of access to the courts, due process, equal protection...

As a result of the devastating earthquake that recently hit Haiti, roughly 40,000 Haitian immigrants will soon arrive in the United States, mainly for medical treatment. However, they'll be going into areas where their native language, Haitian Creole, will act as a barrier to receiving the services they need. Situations...

More than 24 million U.S. residents speak a language other than English or have trouble communicating clearly without resorting to their native tongues. The new health care plan being debated in Congress promises to bring millions more of these legal immigrants into a system already struggling to communicate with patients...