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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR SRC

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

02/08/08

HB

SHORT TITLE Health Care Interpreter Training

SB 582/SRCS

ANALYST Geisler

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$120.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to: SB 62

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Department of Health (DOH)

Health Policy Commission (HPC)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

The Senate Rules Committee substitute for Senate Bill 582 would appropriate $120,000 from the

general fund to DOH to establish and implement a program to train culturally and linguistically

competent interpreters to be employed in health care delivery contexts. Any unexpended balance

remaining at the end of fiscal year 2009 shall revert to the general fund.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation included in this bill was not included in DOH’ FY09 budget request. This

appropriation would build upon current DOH efforts for interpreter training.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

DOH notes they are currently providing bilingual interpreter training in Spanish and Navajo to

direct service health care providers. The interpreter training has been provided by DOH since

late 2005 to 143 staff and community-based health care providers. In addition, DOH has been

providing ongoing training to staff and other health care providers on the Federal Cultural and

Linguistically Appropriate Service (CLAS) Standards. These standards were promulgated by the

Senate Bill 582/SRCS – Page

2

National Office of Minority Health of the Federal Health and Human Services Department in

2001 and require that health care be provided to racial and ethnic minorities in culturally and

linguistically appropriate ways. There are 14 CLAS Standards with Standards 4 through 7

mandating linguistic access for Limited English Proficient patients/clients. The linguistic access

standards mandate that health care organizations receiving federal funds must provide an

interpreter to patients in their preferred language. In addition, health care providers must provide

verbal and written notices to patients/clients informing them of their right to receive language

assistance services at no cost to the patients.

The purpose of providing culturally and linguistically appropriate health care is to close the

state’s gap on health disparities, as measured in the DOH Racial and Health Disparities Report

Card 2007 (see Disparities Section). Cultural Competency provides more effective

communication with, and delivery of higher quality and timely health services to, the full cultural

and socioeconomic spectrum of residents throughout the State. In New Mexico, Hispanics

comprise forty-four percent (44%) of the population and American Indians comprise nearly ten

percent (9.7%) of the population. (2006 American Community Survey,

http://factfinder.census.gov). According to the 2007 DOH “Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

Report Card" both of these groups are negatively impacted by several health status disparities

when compared to the white population.

The appropriation in the committee substitute for SB 582 would support ongoing efforts in DOH

using federal grant funds to provide training for culturally and linguistically competent

interpreters.

RELATIONSHIP

SB 582 relates to SB 62, which would appropriate $60,000 to the Higher Education Department

to continue the work of a Task Force on Cultural Competence in Health Education.

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

HPC provided background on Language Access Services – University of New Mexico Hospital

The University of New Mexico Hospital has been actively concerned with language access at its

multiple facilities since at least the early 1990’s. Informal efforts to maximize use of bilingual

employees as interpreters, however, led to community concerns about the timeliness, availability

and quality of interpreting services. While there is insufficient data to track whether and how

much the prevalence of limited English proficient (LEP) patients has grown among the UNMH

patient population, language barriers are clearly growing among the general population in

UNMH’s catchment area. In Albuquerque, almost 30% of the population speaks a language

other than English at home, and 8.7% of the population speaks English “less than very well." In

Bernalillo County, 9.3% of the population is LEP, while in New Mexico as a whole, a total of

11.9%. Clearly, Albuquerque, Bernalillo County and New Mexico are all above the national

average of 8.1% LEP. UNMH staff interviewed for this study agreed that language barriers do

represent a significant barrier to care. (SOURCE: Review of Language Access Services: Report

to the University of New Mexico Hospital, December 2005)

http://hospitals.unm.edu/ILS/Documents/ReviewReport.pdf

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