Advocacy Update and How You Can Get Involved from Language Line Services President Louis Provenzano

On behalf of Language Line Services and the International Medical Interpreters Association (IMIA), I'd like to update you on our latest advocacy activities in support of legislation for Limited English Proficient (LEP) patients, a very vulnerable and under-served population.

On July 9th, representatives of our organization, along with IMIA and Washington DC lobbyists, met with key congressional staff and made several recommendations we believe are critical to improving health care reform.

How Can You Take Part?

Language Line Services and IMIA respectfully request your support of these key provisions in national health care reform legislation.

Complete the brief form on that Web page, then download, sign and fax your support letter to key Members of Congress to ensure that LEP citizens have equitable access to quality healthcare through credentialed medical interpreting services.

Again, due to the urgency of the request, we ask you to fax the support letters because of delays with mail to Capitol Hill.

Thank you for your consideration of this important request and please contact me with any questions or for additional information.

Once again, you will find the key provisions in national health care reform legislation and the form to get the Letter to Your Legislators here >>

Sincerely,

Louis F. Provenzano, Jr.
President and Chief Operating Officer
Language Line Services
831.648.5855 (Direct and Fax)

A report was issued yesterday morning, July 30th, by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The report, which was requested by the House Small Business Committee, was initiated by the House Small Business Committee and is named: "CMS Should Develop an Agency wide Policy for Translating Medicare Documents into Languages Other Than English"

A PDF* file of the report is available here http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09752r.pdf

* Adobe Acrobat reader needed to read this report.

By Jeffrey Passel and Paul Taylor, Pew Hispanic Center

Is Sonia Sotomayor the first Hispanic ever nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court?

Or does that distinction belong to the late Justice Benjamin Cardozo, who served on the court from 1932-1938 and whose ancestors may or may not have come from Portugal?

Unscrambling Cardozo's family tree is best left to historians and genealogists. Here the Pew Research takes a stab at a more daunting question.

Just who is a Hispanic?

If you turn to the U.S. government for answers, you quickly discover that it has two different approaches to this definitional question. Both are products of a 1976 act of Congress and the administrative regulations that flow from it.

One approach defines a Hispanic or Latino as a member of an ethnic group that traces its roots to 20 Spanish-speaking nations from Latin America and Spain itself (but not Portugal or Portuguese-speaking Brazil).

The other approach is much simpler.

Who's Hispanic? Anyone who says they are. And nobody who says they aren't.

The U.S. Census Bureau uses this second approach.

Click here to read the rest of this Pew Hispanic Center article>>

A PDF Adobe Acrobat version of this report can be found here >>

For detailed demographic information about the Hispanic population, visit "Statistical Portrait of Hispanics in the United States, 2007" (March 5, 2009) and "Latinos Account for Half of U.S. Population Growth Since 2000" (Oct. 23, 2008), which includes interactive maps.

To learn more about the Hispanic vote in 2008, read "Dissecting the Electorate: Most Diverse in U.S. History" (April 30, 2009) and "The Hispanic Vote in the 2008 Election" (Nov. 5, 2008).

To learn more about Hispanic Women in the United States, read the fact sheet "Hispanic Women in the United States, 2007" (May 8, 2008).

A couple of months ago, I received a call from a Language Line client needing assistance with a homeless woman and her two children.

She was from the Dominican Republic and had nothing left after her husband had just been arrested.

As I started to interpret all the information, I discovered that the client was certain she could not help the woman in any way. The woman was so desperate she kept saying, "there has to be a way!"

The client asked her why she didn't go back to her country if she was starving here, as much as she was there. The woman said if she did not find shelter that day, she would sleep under a bridge with her two children.

The client said to her she could sleep wherever she wanted, but the children were her responsibility and they would be taken away from her, if she dared to do that. At this point, the woman broke into tears and started telling the lady all her pain and suffering.

I listened attentively and relayed that information as quickly and precise as possible. Because of this, the woman's heart was touched, and she said she would put them in a shelter for seven days, and help them find a place to live.

I felt so happy and grateful I could help this mother and her children, and that they no longer had to ponder the idea of sleeping in the streets of NYC."

Limari Colón is a Language Line Services Spanish-language Interpreter

"In Other Words" will occasionally share these interpreter stories as they arise.

Click here for current Language Line Services interpreter career opportunities.

• Hear presentations on latest national lobbying updates
• Receive training on how to advocate
• Be the voice of the LEP patient in Washington DC
• Come with us to your Senators and Representatives offices, we need you!

Selected News of the Month

• Better Business Bureau Selects Language Line Services for New Language Access Program


• "Do You Speak The Language?" Providing Linguistically Appropriate Care | Trustee Magazine


• Language Line Services' - Cross-Cultural Update for July 2009. Useful Cultural News, Tips and Timely Information


• "Patient Translators Save Money, But Who Pays" - NPR Interviews Language Line's President/COO, Louis Provenzano


• Language Line Services Honored by Nebraska Association for Translators & Interpreters (NATI)

Read more Language Line Services news here >>

Who attends the conference?

Over 700 were in attendance in 2008 from across the US and over 10 countries. Attendees include Spoken Language and ASL Medical Interpreters, Interpreter Trainers, Language Coaches, and Instructors, Hospital Administrators, Risk Management Professionals, Language Access Advocates, Physicians, Nurses, Social Workers, Language Service Providers and more.

Special this year:

Get a complete update on national and international advocacy efforts for the certification and reimbursement of medical interpreters! For more information go to: http://www.imiaweb.org/conferences/2009default.asp

To Register: http://www.imiaweb.org/conferences/confreg2009.asp.

Language Line Services, the leader in over-the-phone interpretation, is seeking to increase its interpreter team in many languages.

If you have excellent proficiency in English, with strong listening and comprehension skills as well as good customer service skills, you can become an interpreter for Language Line Services.

Visit www.languageline.com/careers.

View the "How to Become an Interpreter" Video.

Then, click on "Apply Today" under "interpreter Careers" OR "Corporate Careers" and follow the directions.

Here's what a valued client said just today (5/28/09) about one of Language Line Services' excellent interpreters:

"...interpreter #6100 for Farsi was awesome fantastic and amazing. I am speechless as to how good the interpreter was. We have a very difficult client that he made so easy for me. Thank you..."

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