Home Health & Hospice Week

If you haven't conducted a four-factor assessment when determining what language access services to offer, you may be out of step with your health care provider peers.

Sixty-nine percent of 140 Medicare providers surveyed conducted the assessment recommended by the HHS Office for Civil Rights, notes a new HHS Office of Inspector General report on language services. But only 33 percent of providers actually offered services fully compliant with Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care (CLAS) standards, the OIG notes in the report.

The HHS Office of Minority Health should educate providers about the CLAS standards and provide translated materials for them, the OIG recommends in the report at www.oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-05-10-00050.pdf.