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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administer critical programs for residents of the United States in need of free or low-cost health plans. These programs are particularly critical for individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) — in 2021, nearly 20% of the nation’s population with LEP were enrolled in Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Programs had LEP. Likewise, 23% of children enrolled in Medicaid had parents who spoke English “less than very well,” back in 2019. As important as these programs are for millions of LEP patients across the nation, their effectiveness ultimately hinges on their ability to connect with and enroll eligible residents. That’s why it’s particularly important that CMS marketing strategies utilize multilingual content — after all, it’s hard to make your message resonate with an audience if they can’t understand the very words you’re using. LEP patients often report difficulty understanding their eligibility for CMS programs. Similarly, many LEP individuals are completely unaware that these programs exist in the first place, due to the prominence of English-language marketing that is simply inaccessible. Multilingual CMS marketing strategies can help with all of this. From creative content like informational videos and brochures to more run-of-the-mill content like SMS messages and letters addressed directly to patients, it’s absolutely critical that Medicare and Medicaid providers connect with people in the language that they speak. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the different approaches you can take when developing a multilingual CMS marketing strategy. While these approaches differ slightly, the end result is the same: CMS marketing campaigns that resonate with people no matter what language they speak. Depending on the resources and budget available to you, you can either craft the marketing content directly in your target languages or you can create content in English first, working with a trusted language service provider to translate the content into your target languages. It may be daunting to craft marketing content in a language you don’t speak — but using this approach allows you to develop marketing campaigns that are authentic and tailored specifically to your target communities. Creating content directly in the target languages requires you to work with a wide range of professionals: in-language copywriters, SEO specialists, marketers and designers, to name a few. By leveraging AI tools, you can easily generate content briefs in the target language and send them off to content specialists who will develop whatever you need — blogs, social media posts, scripts, etc. — in the languages you need them in. By eliminating the need for a translation step, you can ensure that your CMS marketing materials are culturally and linguistically appropriate, without having to wonder if something got lost in translation. That said, there are a handful of trade-offs to this method. To start, contracting marketing professionals in several different languages can get costly. Depending on the number of target languages you’re working in, you also risk fragmentation across different languages — for example, your Spanish content may end up being visually and tonally quite different from your Chinese content. When you work with a language service provider to translate English source material, the provider handles all of the hiring work on their own — if you choose to create content directly in the target language, all of the work of searching for, vetting, and hiring marketing professionals will be placed on your organization. Consider how much time and money your organization has to put toward these materials before opting to go with this approach. You’re likely to find that it’s cheaper and less labor-intensive to create English materials and translate them. If you don’t have access to content marketing professionals who work in your target languages, you can instead develop English-language marketing materials in house before commissioning translation or localization from a language service provider. If you go this route, there are two different approaches you can take: Either you can create content using your brand’s standard tone and voice, or you can use plain language, which will help streamline the translation process and make your content more easily understandable. Below, we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of these two options. This is likely to be the easiest approach for healthcare providers. Your marketing team can simply craft their content as normal, adhering to your standard branding, style, and terminology. Once the content’s been drafted, you can send it off to your language service provider and request the translation services needed. Maintaining your brand voice in the target language will likely require your language service provider to transcreate — rather than simply translate — your content. Though they are closely related processes, transcreation goes a bit deeper than translation. Transcreation attempts to mimic the tone and feel of the original documents, so transcreation specialists have to take into account several additional elements beyond the text itself, such as SEO, local culture, copywriting best practices, design, etc. In the end, this will yield a final product that closely aligns with your brand’s style, while also making sure that the content resonates with LEP individuals. However, transcreation is a more complex process than plain translation. Your language service provider will have to spend more time focusing on your brand’s voice and style, which means you should anticipate a longer turnaround time on projects and potentially higher costs to complete. The term “plain language” refers to writing that is concise and easy to understand on the first read. Standards of plain language might differ quite a bit from your brand’s standard voice and tone, but it can be worth it in the long run to sacrifice your branding a bit for plain language content. Plain language tends to be easier to translate and doesn’t usually require . That means language service providers can typically provide you with a quicker turnaround time on marketing materials that have been written in plain language. This means that it’s particularly suitable for healthcare content under strict regulatory deadlines, such as notices of action and member letters that must be translated and delivered within 72 hours. But using plain language isn’t just about lowering costs and reducing turnaround time on your translations. Health literacy rates in this country are low — 36% of adults in the US have basic or below basic health literacy rates. Plain language breaks down complex medical concepts into small chunks that readers can easily understand. By explaining things in clear, concise language, you make medical information more accessible, enabling patients to understand your message and improve their health literacy. Plain Language Guidelines: Translation Begins with the Source Multilingual marketing strategies are the key to connecting with individuals with LEP. When it comes to programs like Medicare and Medicaid, it’s important that healthcare providers make an effort to engage individuals in all languages so that they can understand their eligibility for free or low-cost healthcare services. Here are a few different approaches to developing multilingual CMS marketing content for LEP patients: No matter which approach you select, the end product will be a CMS marketing campaign that effectively reaches patients with LEP. At Avantpage, we’ll gladly assist you in developing a multilingual marketing strategy. Whether you need translation, transcreation, or web localization, we can help — contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040 to get started.
Browse our most recent blogs covering topics surrounding health equity, language access, and improving social determinants of health through culturally competent care.

Clear, effective communication between healthcare providers and their patients is essential for improving health outcomes, especially within minority communities. However, the path to understanding isn’t always straightforward. While speaking the same language as your patients — that is, providing translations, interpreting, etc. — goes a long way, it’s not the only way to ensure that you’re communicating effectively with your patients. The words we use are just one aspect of communication. Other, non-verbal aspects of communication such as cultural understanding, shared experiences, and body language play equally crucial roles in building trust and ensuring messages resonate. That’s where community health workers, also referred to as “promotores de salud” in Spanish-speaking circles, come in. These dedicated individuals serve as trusted liaisons who bridge the healthcare access gap and cultivate lasting trust within vulnerable populations.  According to MHP Salud, a non-profit organization that focuses on improving access to social services and healthcare in underserved communities, promotores de salud “use their insights and knowledge of cultural norms to provide relevant health information and education to help Hispanics work through the barriers they face when addressing complex issues such as sexual assault, navigating the health care system, and gaining access to affordable fresh and nutritious foods.” In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at what community health workers and promotores de salud do to boost patients’ confidence in and understanding of their care. We’ll also talk about how your organization can work with them to improve your language access measures and go beyond translation and interpretation to provide patients with a truly equitable healthcare experience. As the American Public Health Association defines them, a community health worker “is a frontline public health worker who is a trusted member of and/or has an unusually close understanding of the community served.” For healthcare organizations that work closely with immigrant populations who have limited English proficiency (LEP), community health workers who are knowledgeable about or members of the relevant immigrant communities can be especially powerful liaisons between the care team and their patients. Promotores de salud are one prominent example of such community health workers — promotores de salud aim to bridge the gap between healthcare providers and their Hispanic patients with LEP. Because community health workers are already members of the community they serve, patients may be more trusting toward them, enabling more effective communication from the get-go. Community health workers help individuals with a wide range of healthcare-related tasks and provide them with valuable information about how to navigate the complexities of the American healthcare system. In many cases, community health workers play an educational role — they inform patients about what services are available to them, helping them find informational materials that have already been translated into their language, and providing them with resources to lead a healthy lifestyle. They also provide support, helping patients schedule doctor’s appointments, working together with them to fill out administrative paperwork or apply for low-cost medical insurance programs, acting as a sort of liaison between the patient and their providers. Community health workers are not language service professionals — you wouldn’t necessarily go to them to provide interpretation services for a patient with LEP. But they still play a valuable role in improving health outcomes for patients with LEP, as they speak the patient’s language and help them navigate the healthcare system in their preferred language. Unlike interpreters — whose role is primarily linguistic — community health workers can check in with the patient to make sure that they fully understand the implications of what their caretaker is telling them. Thanks to their knowledge of the patient’s cultural background, they can provide additional information in a way that is not only linguistically appropriate, but also culturally appropriate. In this sense, community health workers allow care teams to cover all of their bases when it comes to communicating with the patient — they can rest easy knowing that their patient fully understands their condition. Additionally, community health workers can enrich your multilingual outreach efforts — after all, you may have plenty of translated materials on hand, but they won’t be useful to patients unless they know how and where to access them. One critical part of community health workers’ job is to help patients find healthcare-related information that’s been translated into their language. Community health workers empower patients from underserved backgrounds to advocate for themselves in a healthcare setting. For patients with LEP, they are particularly invaluable as they ensure that language isn’t the only barrier addressed—they also make sure information is provided in a trustworthy and culturally relevant way. By building a good rapport with patients and providing culturally tailored health information, community health workers enable patients to better understand their health, access essential services, and make informed decisions about their care. If you’re looking to learn more about the role community health workers can play in your organization, Avantpage can help. We provide language access consulting services and can help you develop a language access plan that centers cultural relevance — contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040 to learn more.

Health insurance providers have to work with extremely tight timelines to ensure that patients receive communications and letters about their plans in a timely fashion.  Since California’s Department of Health Care Services issued APL 21-011 in 2022, California’s Medi-Cal managed health care plans have had to issue notice of action (NOA) letters and notice of appeal resolution (NAR) letters to patients in their preferred language (or preferred alternative format such as braille or large print) within a 72-hour timeframe. When mailing these communications to patients with limited English proficiency (LEP), this means the content must be translated, printed, mailed, and received within just three days. Now, due to changes by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, this requirement is expanding out of California and will be standard across the nation. The 72-hour requirement aims to reduce delays in patient care, which can be detrimental to a patient’s overall health outcome. Still, this is a pretty tight timeframe to work within, and it may seem like the translation process would slow things down. But it doesn’t have to be that way. At Avantpage, we’ve been working with California healthcare organizations since this regulation was first introduced in 2022 to develop a finely tuned process that ensures patients with LEP or disabilities receive translated/alternatively formatted letters well within the 72-hour timeframe. In the first year alone, we managed to translate 17,000 member letters. We can handle everything from translating letters to actually printing and mailing them — all while maintaining compliance with HIPAA and the requirements outlined in new regulations surrounding APLs. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the steps we follow for our translation to print and mail services to show you how we translate member letters and other important healthcare communications in rushed timeframes without sacrificing the quality of your communication. Our clock starts ticking as soon as you send us the content you need translated. Along with the letter you need translated, you’ll also need to give us various project specifications for the project so that we can complete it in a timely fashion — that includes things like turnaround time, target language, etc. Once we receive a document and project specifications, we get right to work. The vast majority of our translations are printed and mailed out within seven to eight hours. Once we’ve got the content and project specifications, we run the document through AvantShield, our proprietary patient health information (PHI) masking software. This preprocessing step is absolutely critical to ensuring that our translations are HIPAA compliant; during this step, we remove all PHI from the document so that this data remains safe and secure. After processing the document through AvantShield, we assign the project to a team of linguists to begin the translation process. In assigning linguists to a project, we take into account several factors—availability, linguist qualifications, location and HIPAA requirements. Once the team has been assigned to your project, we’ll begin with the translation steps. The linguist team will first translate the content into the target language, edit it to ensure accuracy and readability, and review it to make sure that there are no typographical errors. After the review step is done, we’ll make sure to put the PHI back into the document. We save this step for last in order to keep patient data secure and ensure HIPAA compliance. Our in-house quality assurance (QA) team, who runs further QA checks and gives the final stamp of approval on each translation. Our extensive QA procedures allow you to rest easy knowing that we’re delivering the most accurate and high-quality translation possible. By the eighth hour, your letter is translated and ready to go. At this stage, we’ll work closely with one of our highly vetted printers to ensure that your documents are printed and mailed in a timely fashion. We’ll send the document directly to the printer, so you don’t have to worry about handling the logistics of printing and mailing these letters yourself. Once the document is printed, the printer will package and mail the letter to the patient. By Hour 8, your letter should be in the mail carrier and ready for delivery. We allow the most time for this final period, since the delivery process is entirely manual. Because we complete the translation and quality steps so early on in the process, we have a little bit of leeway in case there are any delays in the postal system. Altogether, this process allows your patients to receive their communications in their preferred language in a timely fashion. This reduces the chance of delays in patient care, in turn, improving their health outcomes. At Avantpage, we’ve been working with health insurance providers to make sure their clients receive information about their health plans in their preferred language as quick as possible, without sacrificing on translation quality. We’ve developed a fine-tuned process to ensure that translated letters reach patients’ mailboxes in 72 hours or less—here’s how it works: Looking to learn more about how we can help you deliver letters to patients in 72 hours or less? Contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040.

It’s no secret that speaking your patient’s language goes a long way toward reducing the risk for error in healthcare. Language access is an absolutely critical aspect of making sure that patients with limited English proficiency get the care that they need — interpreters allow doctors and patients to understand one another, minimizing the chances of a misdiagnosis due to gaps in understanding, while translated documents allow patients to stay informed about their condition.  Another, less widely discussed benefit of language access services in the healthcare system is that language access builds trust between the patient and their care team. The relationship between language and trust is strong — when you communicate with somebody in their preferred language, they are more likely to feel comfortable and trusting of your services. By fostering a sense of transparency in communications between the patient and their care team, language access allows the patient to feel more confident in their interactions with their doctor. Enhanced patient trust, in turn, empowers patients to ask questions and be better advocates for themselves, ultimately improving their health outcomes. Research has shown that when patients receive language concordant care — that is, healthcare services provided by staff who speak the same language as them — they are significantly more likely to trust their healthcare providers than patients who receive services through ad hoc interpreters. This is particularly important when we consider the fact that members of marginalized communities — such as immigrants and people with LEP — are less likely to trust healthcare providers. While it may not always be possible to provide 100% language concordant care, the strong relationship between language and trust is evident. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at how you can enhance your language access services to build patient trust. Here are five simple ways that you can employ language access services to build patient trust in your practice. As we’ve mentioned previously, language concordant care can go a long way toward building patient trust. Emphasizing multilingualism and multiculturalism in your hiring practices allows you to offer such care. Language concordant care doesn’t simply mean asking bilingual staff to act as impromptu interpreters (which, on the whole, is not recommended). Instead, it means hiring caretakers who are deeply proficient in a given language, who are capable of performing the duties of a doctor, nurse, or other care provider in the preferred language of the patient. This goes a long way toward building patient trust. Having access to a trained medical interpreter ensures that patients are able to understand their care team in real time. Medical interpreters are specialized professionals who are deeply familiar with the language used in a medical setting and make communication between care providers and patients with LEP much smoother and more transparent. Make sure to have multiple different modes of interpreting available so that you can suit the patient’s preference and needs — in-person, video, or over-the-phone.  By having commonly used forms — such as consent forms, discharge instructions, and informational brochures — available in multiple languages, you remove communication barriers that can delay care or lead to misunderstandings. This is a proactive approach that makes sure patients are well-informed, ultimately enhancing patient trust in their care team. Regularly updating these documents to reflect the linguistic needs of your patient population also demonstrates a commitment to cultural sensitivity and inclusive care. Multilingual phone trees make it easier for patients to schedule appointments, ask questions, or access services without confusion. Allowing patients to access your phone system in multiple languages not only reduces frustration, but also signals to patients that their needs are a priority from the very first interaction. For pre-recorded content such as automated voicemails, it’s a good idea to leave bilingual messages in both English and Spanish. Additionally, you’ll also want to make sure to keep note of a patient’s preferred language so that you can have pre-written or recorded appointment confirmations sent to them via text or phone call in their language. By providing clear and accessible phone options, you build a sense of trust and inclusion, reinforcing the notion that all patients, regardless of their linguistic background, are valued and supported. To build patient trust, you need to make sure that your patient-facing staff are adequately trained to interact with patients who come from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Organization-wide training sessions on cultural and linguistic appropriateness are a good way to teach your staff how to engage patients from different backgrounds. While you likely won’t be able to assign an Algerian Arabic-speaking patient with LEP to a care team composed entirely of doctors and nurses from the same cultural and linguistic background, it’s important that staff from different backgrounds are able to interact with them respectfully. Hosting regular training on topics related to cultural and linguistic sensitivity ensures that your staff are aware of best practices for building trust with LEP patients. Building patient trust isn’t easy — especially if you’re not able to communicate with patients in a transparent and easily understandable fashion. It can be even harder to build trust with communities that have historically faced marginalization, such as immigrants and people with LEP. So when it comes to caring for LEP patients, language access goes a long way toward improving your patients’ trust in your services. Here are a few simple ways that language access can boost trust between you and your patients: If you’re looking for ways to build trust with your patients, Avantpage has you covered. From interpreting and translation services to evaluating the language skills of your multilingual staff, we offer several language services that are sure to boost patient trust. Contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040 to learn more.

During patient handoffs—that is, the process of transferring a patient from one caretaker or team to another in a healthcare setting—it’s hard to overstate the importance of clear, effective communication.  Patient handoffs are a key part of the medical process, typically occurring at the beginning or end of a care team’s shift, when a patient moves to another location, or, in telehealth settings, when a patient is transferred by phone or video call. Thorough and detailed communication during these handoffs ensures continuity of care, minimizing the risk of serious errors when shifting from one caretaker to the next. When it comes to patients with limited English proficiency (LEP), there’s a high risk of communication errors. Miscommunication during patient handoffs can disrupt the continuity of a patient’s care, potentially leading to minor or major errors in their care. When working with patients who have LEP, it’s absolutely imperative to bridge any linguistic gaps between the care teams and the patient, so that no information is lost during the patient handoff. Medical interpreters play an important role in any efforts to improve patient handoffs for patients with LEP. In this blog post, we’ll go over some common communication errors that come up during handoffs of LEP patients, and ways that interpreters and other language assistance services can help you improve patient handoffs within your organization. Linguistic gaps during patient handoffs can prevent one care team from adequately informing the next, leading to an incomplete transfer of information. For example, one care team may fail to accurately convey information about the patient’s treatment plan and care preferences due to the language barrier between them and the patient. In particularly grave circumstances, this missing information can delay the new care team’s response to changes in the patient’s condition, breaking the continuity in their care. To improve patient handoffs and mitigate the risk of this kind of error, interpreters can play a critical role. Interpreters serve as a linguistic bridge between doctors, nurses and the patient, ensuring that each party fully understands what is being discussed during the handoff—the presence of an interpreter empowers the patient to speak up and self-advocate if they perceive miscommunication between the two care teams during the handoff. During a patient handoff, caretakers typically give the patient information about their medication, follow-up appointments, and self-care procedures. It can be especially difficult for LEP patients to understand and properly interpret these instructions without the aid of an interpreter—depending on their level of English, they may not understand any of the instructions at all, or they may miss crucial details and follow the instructions inadequately. It’s important to make sure that the patient fully understands this information, or else it could lead to nonadherence of these important instructions. At best, this misinterpretation will be swiftly corrected by the following care team; at worst, improperly following the care team’s instructions could lead the patient’s condition to worsen. Having an interpreter available around the clock is one way to remedy this error—an interpreter allows care teams to rest easy knowing that their LEP patients fully understand the instructions they’ve been given. The interpreter can also play a more active role in these settings to make sure the patient fully understands these instructions before the handoff is finished. And by having somebody available on-call in between rounds, you ensure that somebody is available to interpret during emergencies and other unplanned instances, preventing any delays to the patient’s care. Clear communication during patient handoffs is essential to uphold legal and ethical standards in healthcare. Miscommunication with LEP patients can compromise a patient’s informed consent and lead to misunderstandings about treatment plans. Failure to ensure that LEP patients fully understand their care can not only result in medical errors and adverse health outcomes, but also legal repercussions, as patients have a legal right to culturally competent language services. Because miscommunication can have such serious impacts on a patient’s health outcome, healthcare providers have an ethical obligation to bridge linguistic gaps between them and their patients. Proper use of interpreters and language services can mitigate these risks, ensuring compliance with legal and ethical responsibilities. Language isn’t the only important factor when dealing with patients who have LEP—cultural differences must also be accounted for. A French-speaking patient with LEP from Haiti, for example, is likely to have different cultural nuances than a French speaker from Canada. As a result, it’s important to be aware of certain cultural sensitivities—a handoff that violates the patient’s cultural norms and beliefs may diminish the patient’s trust in their healthcare providers. In turn, this can have a negative impact on the relationship between the patient and the next care team, potentially leading to adverse outcomes. To improve cultural sensitivity in patient handoffs, consider working with an interpreter from a similar background as the patient if possible—in the example above, a French interpreter from Haiti, or with deep knowledge of Haitian culture, may be more well-suited to interpret than a French interpreter from France. Additionally, holding cultural sensitivity training sessions for your doctors, nurses, and other patient-facing employees can go a long way toward improving your patient handoffs with LEP patients. Accurate documentation during patient handoffs is vital for maintaining continuity of care. Linguistic gaps and miscommunication between doctors and patients can lead to incomplete or incorrect recording of the patient’s current status, treatment plans, and care needs. These inaccuracies can hinder subsequent healthcare providers from delivering appropriate care, increasing the risk of medical errors and adverse events. Working with an interpreter ensures that the care team understands and correctly documents all of the relevant information. This enables all parties involved in the patient handoff to communicate clearly and maintain precise records. Interpreters can play an important role in your efforts to improve patient handoffs for individuals with LEP. Several communication errors may arise when caring for patients with LEP—here’s how interpreters can help fix each one: At Avantpage, we provide medical interpreting services in more than 150 different languages—our medical interpreters are highly skilled in bridging linguistic gaps during patient handoffs and other critical healthcare processes. To learn more about our services, contact us today at (530) 750-2040 or [email protected].

It’s important for Medicare plan providers and healthcare organizations to make sure they’re able to communicate effectively with their patients — and that means speaking to them in their language.  Medicare Advantage sponsors are required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to translate documents into languages spoken by at least 5% of the members in a plan’s service area. In this way, the CMS requires providers to be mindful of the country’s linguistic diversity. If your organization is looking to translate documents into a new language, or simply want to refresh old translations, you’ll want to work with a translation agency that specializes in Medicare services. A Medicare translation agency will help you identify the documents that need translation and work with you to make sure you’re up to par with the CMS’ requirements. But with all the language service providers out there, how can you determine which one is best for you and your organization’s needs? At Avantpage, we’ve identified three main factors to consider when you’re evaluating a Medicare translation agency to work with: These factors all come together to influence one another — for example, shorter turnaround time on a project might require you to sacrifice cost or quality, depending on the agency you work with and its approach. Likewise, lower cost might mean lower quality, and so on. In this blog post, we’ll take a deeper dive into the factors you need to consider when selecting a translation agency to work on important Medicare documents, to give you a better sense of what to look for when you’re looking for a language service provider. Turnaround time, quality, and cost are deeply intertwined factors that you need to consider when selecting an agency, as they can significantly impact the outcome of your translation projects. For instance, if your priority is quick turnaround time, your agency will need to allocate resources in different areas that will more than likely require a bit of a trade-off between quality and cost. The agency will either need to hire additional professionals or leverage advanced technologies to ensure that the translation can be delivered on time. More human professionals will keep the quality high, but it will also drive the cost up; on the flip-side, technology will keep costs low, but will likely lower the overall quality of your translation. On the other hand, prioritizing quality entails implementing additional processes or involving more linguists in the translation process. This can lead to higher costs and potentially longer turnaround times. If minimizing cost is your primary concern, compromises can be made on the number of linguists involved, simplifying processes, or leveraging cost-effective technologies. However, this often comes at the expense of quality and/or turnaround time. It’s important to recognize that prioritizing low cost in healthcare, particularly in Medicare translation, may not always align with delivering high-quality and timely services necessary for equitable care. Because these factors are so deeply connected, it’s important to figure out which ones you want to prioritize — each organization is likely to have different priorities, depending on the kinds of translation projects they need completed. For instance, Medicare or state-managed health plans like Medi-Cal plans tend to place a premium on both turnaround time and quality, in order to comply with health equity regulations. These regulations often mandate timely delivery of culturally and linguistically appropriate services to effectively address health equity gaps. For example, Medi-Cal Notice of Action letters must not only meet stringent quality standards but also have to adhere to tight deadlines, requiring translations within as little as 4 hours to ensure timely delivery to the patient. Similarly, healthcare organizations that conduct health education workshops may prioritize quality over the other three factors to ensure accurate dissemination of information. While cost considerations are also important, maintaining the integrity of the content and ensuring it resonates with diverse audiences may take precedence. In such cases, turnaround time may be less critical, as events are typically planned well in advance, allowing for adequate preparation time. Ultimately, the order of importance for organizations when selecting a Medicare translation agency may vary based on their specific objectives, regulatory requirements, and the nature of the content being translated. Think of these factors as sort of the “Big Three” to consider when determining the right Medicare translation agency for your organization. They’re the main things you’ll want to consider, but they aren’t necessarily the only things to consider — here are just a few additional factors and sub-factors that could play a role in deciding which agency is the best fit: As you look for a Medicare translation agency to help your organization meet its language access goals, there are several factors to consider. Three major ones — turnaround time, quality, and cost — stand out the most. Here are some things to consider as you seek out a language service provider to work with: At Avantpage, we’ve worked with extensively with Medicare providers and healthcare organizations to meet their healthcare needs. If you’re looking for a top-notch Medicare translation agency, consider reaching out to us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040.

As we enter the new year, there are a handful of important regulatory changes to keep in mind about Medicare and Medicaid. With these changes, the demand for language services like translation and localization is sure to rise in the field of healthcare. On a national level, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is updating the requirements for the kinds of documents and information that agencies have to translate or communicate to patients in non-English languages. In the state of California, another change is taking place to focus on enhancing care management. As of this month, all low-income residents of California between the ages of 26 and 49 will be eligible for the California Medical Assistance Program, also known as Medi-Cal, regardless of their immigration status. Previously, undocumented immigrants in this age group — despite making up a significant portion of the state’s population of undocumented immigrants — were ineligible for Medi-Cal, even though undocumented children, young adults, and adults over the age of 50 were able to receive it. This means roughly 1.5 million people could now be eligible for Medi-Cal — it also means that healthcare providers in California need to be more prepared than ever to offer high-quality language access services. The majority of unauthorized immigrants in the United States have limited English proficiency (LEP), meaning that providers must be ready to serve them in their language. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the recent changes to government health insurance programs — with a particular emphasis on the changes to Medi-Cal here in California. We’ll also explain how healthcare providers can ensure their services are accessible to individuals with LEP.
As of January 1, a handful policy changes have taken place for government health insurance plans, two of which will have an impact on the demand for language services in the healthcare sector. On a nationwide level, the CMS introduced a policy change that more explicitly requires Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D programs to provide more accessible standardized communications in non-English languages. More specifically, plan providers must keep translations of required materials in any language spoken by 5% or more of the population of a plan’s service area. These materials must also be available in an accessible format such as braille, large print, or audio upon request. This change will require MA providers to seek out language and accessibility services in order to accommodate the new translation requirement, meant to enhance care for patients with LEP. Healthcare providers in California are also likely to see increased demand for translation, localization, and interpretation, as a huge swath of the state’s undocumented immigrant population has just become eligible for the state’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal. While low-income unauthorized immigrants below the age of 26 and above the age of 50 have been eligible to receive insurance through Medi-Cal for a while now, those from 26 to 49 have not. This means that a huge population of unauthorized immigrants will now be eligible to receive free or low-cost health insurance, making healthcare far more affordable for them. However, it’s important to keep in mind that many of these immigrants have LEP, meaning that hospitals, clinics, and health plan communications need to be ready to offer interpreting and translation to these new patients.  It also means that Medi-Cal providers need to be proactive about communicating plan eligibility to people with LEP, as many of these individuals may not be aware that they’re suddenly eligible to receive health insurance through Medi-Cal. Although more people will be eligible for these services, it’s important to note that trust and outreach will be a major barrier in actually providing healthcare to newly eligible immigrants. Providers must use a diverse range of platforms — from print marketing campaigns to social media posts in multiple languages — to ensure that prospective patients are getting the information they need about Medi-Cal.
With the number of people eligible for Medi-Cal increasing significantly, California-based providers need to be ready for an increased demand for healthcare services. Expect to see more patients accessing your services in non-English languages, and adapt accordingly — that might mean translating more materials, working with a language service provider to contract more interpreters, even hiring more multilingual staff, or a combination of ways. Here’s how some Avantpage clients are working to adjust to the new policy changes and ensure that they’re able to meet the needs of linguistically diverse communities, enhancing care overall.
As the landscape of healthcare access undergoes significant changes in California, healthcare providers must prepare for an increased demand for language services. Conducting an inventory of available language resources, including translation materials, multilingual staff, and interpretation services, will help providers identify potential gaps. By understanding the linguistic diversity of their patient population, healthcare organizations can strategically allocate resources to address the specific needs that arise from the expanded eligibility criteria.
The first quarter of the year is a critical period for healthcare providers to closely monitor usage trends and adapt their language services accordingly. By analyzing data related to language preferences, service utilization, and patient demographics during this initial phase of policy changes, providers can gain valuable insights into the evolving needs of their patient population. For institutions with historical data on language service utilization, comparing Q1 trends with previous periods can offer a baseline for understanding the impact of policy changes. If you don’t have much data to compare Q1 with, think of this period as a sort of benchmark you can use to align your resources with emerging patterns. It’s also a good idea to get patient feedback on your language services to see where you might need to improve.
Understanding various options for cost reduction can help organizations optimize their language service delivery without compromising quality. Traditional translation memory systems can be leveraged to streamline the translation process and enhance cost savings. By reusing previously translated content, providers can reduce the time and resources required for repetitive translations. Open communication with your language service provider is crucial during this phase. Providers should engage with their account managers to explore innovative solutions, whether it involves adopting new technologies, optimizing savings, or finding alternative cost-efficient approaches. With policy changes taking place this year, there’s a lot for healthcare providers to do — but making these changes means you’ll be better suited to serve communities that have historically been underserved by the medical establishment. If you’re a California-based healthcare provider, here are some recommendations as we begin the new year: At Avantpage, we’ve helped innumerable healthcare providers serve patients with LEP. If you’re looking for help navigating increased demand for language services, Avantpage is here for you: We offer translation, interpreting, and localization services. Contact us today at (530) 750-2040 or [email protected] to learn more.

Every year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) release a series of star ratings that patients can use to evaluate the quality of the services that a Medicare Advantage health plan offers.  As a health insurance provider, it’s important to make sure your CMS star rating is in tip top condition. CMS star ratings help patients identify high-quality Medicare health plans, with a five-star rating indicating excellence. If your rating falls below this threshold, not only will patients be less likely to select your plans, but you could face penalties and fines from the CMS.  The CMS calculates its star ratings on a scale of 1 to 5 based on the following factors:  If your CMS star ratings slip or you’re simply looking for new ways to improve your services, it might be a good idea to look into improving your language access plan. Patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) make up a significant proportion of Medicare recipients, and as such, it’s important to make sure you’re serving them effectively if you want to boost your star rating. By offering a diverse range of language access services for LEP patients, you can improve their overall experience with your organization, thereby increasing your CMS star ratings.  Although language access is not factored directly into your CMS star rankings, improving language access can help you perform better on the other measures that the CMS uses to calculate your star rankings. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at how your agency can improve its language access services and, in turn, boost your CMS star rating.  Nearly 10% of the United States’ population has LEP, meaning that they are unable to effectively understand or communicate in English. Research suggests that immigrants — particularly those with LEP — are more likely than their U.S.-born counterparts to be enrolled in Medicare services.   And given that the number of older individuals with LEP is projected to grow significantly over the course of the next 40 years (by 2060, experts predict the number of older LEP immigrants will grow to 22 million, up by 15 million from 2018), it’s important to make sure that you’re able to serve this population just as well as you’re able to serve English speakers.   Patients — regardless of the language that they speak — need to be able to understand their health status and communicate effectively with their healthcare providers and insurance agencies. By offering language access services that improve your organization’s transparency, outreach, and communication with consumers, you can contribute to improved health outcomes for the country’s growing population of individuals with LEP.  Effective CMS Marketing for Multilingual Healthcare Materials A Guide to Finding a Medicare Translation Agency Fast Print & Mail Translations for Health Plans While the CMS won’t take your language access measures into account when developing star ratings, high-quality language access is likely to improve your performance on the measures that they do factor into their star ratings.  In recent years, CMS star ratings have been on a downward trend — more and more providers are performing worse than they have in past years. And that could be because many of them aren’t well-prepared to meet the needs of their patients with LEP.   Let’s take a look at the different factors that go into your CMS star ratings, and how improving language access can help you improve your score on each.  The CMS looks at the mortality rates of patients enrolled in a specific plan when determining their star rankings — the lower your mortality rate, the higher your star rating will be. LEP appears to be a factor that can increase mortality rates — according to a report published in 2016, LEP “was associated with a 31% increased odds of mortality” among patients with sepsis, even after accounting for illness severity, comorbidities and other factors.  While it depends on the type of healthcare issue patients face, making sure they are well-informed about their plan and comfortable seeking out the treatment they need, you can lower the overall mortality rate of your plan. In the case of LEP patients, translating important medical information and offering interpretation services as needed will empower patients to make informed choices about their healthcare.   This measure looks at the rate of serious complications patients can potentially face when seeking treatment, such as surgery site infections or catheter-induced urinary tract infections. Language access may not directly impact this measure, but you should be able to effectively communicate the level of risk patients might face. Additionally, making sure interpreters are available and present either in person or remotely can ensure patients are knowledgeable about the health procedures they’re undergoing, allowing them to make decisions accordingly.  If patients frequently have to return to the hospital after surgeries or health emergencies like heart attacks and stroke, your CMS star rating will go down. Patients with LEP have been shown to have particularly high readmission rates when compared to patients who speak English.   If you’re looking to reduce readmission rates, it’s a good idea to look into whether or not your readmission rates are higher for your LEP patients. If it is, working with a language service provider to improve your language access could be a good first step to improving this measure. In 2017, researchers found that access to interpreters had a significant impact on lowering the readmission rates for patients with LEP, from 17.8% to 13.4%.  CMS star ratings also take the patient reviews into account — if patients aren’t satisfied with the care they’re receiving, it could take your rating down a notch. While it’s true that language access can be a matter of life or death in certain situations, it’s also an important way to make patients feel more comfortable, regardless of the severity of their health situation. LEP patients who have access to high-quality language access services may be more likely to report a positive patient experience, which could give your rating a well-needed boost on this measure.  The longer it takes to give patients effective care, the lower your star rating is likely to be here. And wait times tend to be much longer for patients with LEP than for English-speaking patients: A 2022 study found that folks with LEP spend an average of 31.9 minutes in the waiting room, while English speakers wait just 21.8.  On this measure, interpreters can play a particularly important role — if patients with LEP regularly have to wait for a long time to receive interpreting services, it could delay their access to effective care, ultimately hurting your star rating. Work with a language service provider to make sure interpreting services are available on standby so that you can get them access to an interpreter as soon as possible.  Your CMS star ratings are an important way for patients to understand the quality of care they’re receiving. In order to avoid penalties and fines, it’s important to aim for a five-star rating; considering the unique needs of LEP patients, language access is likely to play an important role in reaching that perfect score.  If you’re looking to improve your language access services and boost your CMS star ratings, Avantpage is here to help. We know how important language access is for LEP patients and are proud to provide specialized translation, interpreting, and localization services for healthcare providers. Contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040. 

Whether you’re calling customer service to help you set up your new computer or simply want to get in touch with a local government agency, phone systems and call centers can be tricky enough even for native English speakers to navigate. Faulty voice recognition software and confusing instructions cause frustration for many of us, but they’re even more likely to cause problems for callers with limited English proficiency (LEP). For individuals with LEP, making a simple phone call to a government agency, medical institution, or any other organization can become a daunting task if the phone system isn’t set up with their needs in mind. Many organizations provide over-the-phone interpreting services — as they should — but inadvertently set up their phone systems with critical breakdown points for LEP users. When it comes to language access over the phone, interpreting isn’t enough: Your phone system also has to be as user-friendly as possible. With open enrollment season upon us healthcare organizations and insurance agencies are bound to receive heightened demand on their phone systems and call centers. That means it’s crucial to reflect upon ways they can improve the experience they provide for callers with LEP. Here, we’ll explore some especially common barriers that LEP patients encounter when contacting call centers for various organizations.
Your phone system can make or break an individual’s experience seeking out help from your agency. Here are some common troubles that people with LEP encounter when trying to contact healthcare providers and insurance agencies over the phone — and ways that you can help improve their experience and provide them the service they expect. Complex phone trees can be a major obstacle for anyone — and particularly so for patients with LEP. While simplifying your phone tree is ideal, it’s not always feasible for every organization. Still, there are ways to reduce breakdowns even if you can’t create a simpler phone tree. If callers have to listen to and select from several menu items, it’s a good idea to have separate phone numbers for different languages, making it more efficient for individuals to reach the right department without frustration. It’s critical for organizations to have clear methods for identifying the patient’s preferred language before calling an interpreter. After all, you certainly don’t want to misidentify a caller’s language and wind up with an interpreter that doesn’t speak their language. Self-identification is one common method that phone systems utilize — i.e., have menu items that read “For English, press one” and “Para español, marque dos,” et cetera., that connect speakers to employees or interpreters who will help them out in their preferred language. Additionally, artificial intelligence tools that can automatically recognize a speaker’s language using voice recognition are slowly but surely growing to be more competent, and could one day be useful to implement in your phone systems. If a caller does get connected to somebody that doesn’t speak their language, employees should be prepared to contact an interpreter and inform them that an interpreter will be on the line shortly. This information must be conveyed clearly and quickly — individuals with LEP may not stay on the line for long if they cannot effectively communicate with the other person on the line, so letting them know that help is on the way is key. A pre-recorded message saying “Please hold for an interpreter” in the caller’s primary language should be an effective way to keep the caller on the line while you wait for an interpreter to come on the line. Additionally, some agencies opt to create phonetic guides that employees can use to read the message to callers in a handful of different languages; this way, employees can convey the message on their own, without having to actually speak the language in question. One of the most common barriers for LEP patients is the lack of proper employee training — if employees are not properly trained, communication may be inefficient and callers will quickly grow frustrated or confused and hang up. Make sure to offer comprehensive training to your employees during the onboarding process, covering topics such as how to call interpreters and how to use your organization’s phone system to connect with them effectively. It’s important to keep the caller on the line at all times. Some set-ups require an employee to disconnect the call and then call the patient back — this is far from ideal, as it can confuse the caller and, depending on how long it takes to call them back, they may not pick up the second call. Additionally, LEP patients may not even be able to give your employees their phone number, considering the language barrier that required an interpreter in the first place. Make sure that your employees can seamlessly connect with the interpreter without hanging up and calling them again — this may simply be a matter of re-training your employees or implementing a more advanced phone system. If your organization uses bilingual messaging in voicemails, it’s important to include a notice in the target language at the beginning of the message. All too often, LEP patients have to listen to a long, drawn-out message in English — unsure of whether or not it will be followed by a translation in their language — before hearing the message in their language. While bilingual messaging is certainly important, be sure to present it in a logical manner. Before starting your English message, consider including a simple opening line in the target language that reads along the lines of “This is a bilingual message,” so callers know to expect a translation following the English message. This step eliminates confusion and ensures that the LEP patient knows to listen to the entire message before hanging up or leaving a message. This open enrollment season, take some time to consider ways in which your phone system and call center processes can be improved to create a smoother experience for callers with LEP. Here are some ways to eliminate common barriers LEP callers may face: At Avantpage, we’re proud to provide over-the-phone interpreting services to help your organization connect with clients who have LEP. Contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040 for more information.

A few years before Avantpage was founded, our CEO Luis Miguel’s friend had a bit of a health scare.  This friend, a native Spanish speaker with limited English proficiency (LEP), went to the doctor one day to check up on a health concern he’d had. Though he often brought his daughter to doctor’s appointments to interpret for him, he decided not to this time around, in case it was something serious. But when he left the doctor’s office, he wasn’t sure what to make of the experience — he knew he had a growth in his chest, but he had no idea if it was malignant or not. So he asked Luis Miguel to help him out. Luckily, it was just a cyst, and not a tumor, as he had feared. It was this experience, among others, that inspired Luis Miguel to found Avantpage nearly three decades ago. Luis’s friend’s experience was lucky, but not entirely unique — millions of patients across the United States have LEP, making a routine trip to the doctor’s office a fairly complicated excursion. As we celebrate Avantpage’s 27th birthday on Oct. 31, we think it’s worthwhile to understand what it means to be an LEP patient navigating the all-too-complex healthcare system in the United States. In this blog post, we’ll explore the LEP meaning through the experience of LEP patients, while also providing a few key tips for healthcare providers to keep in mind as they attempt to support individuals with LEP.  As defined by the United States government, an individual with LEP “does not speak English as their primary language and has a limited ability to read, speak, write, or understand English.” Nearly 10% of the country’s population fits into this category — as of 2021, there were 25.7 million residents of the US above the age of five years old with LEP. LEP means an individual can have a major obstacle for individuals seeking out healthcare, whether that’s navigating the complex health insurance market or calling an ambulance during an emergency. Individuals with LEP struggle to comprehend complex medical terminology and effectively communicate their healthcare needs with providers. Healthcare is complex enough as it is. Most of the documents and information you’ll encounter in a healthcare setting — things like the instructions on your prescriptions, or informational pamphlets you receive at the doctor’s office — require a 7th- or 8th-grade reading level to fully understand. 88% of adults (English speakers included) in this country have inadequate health literacy levels. So if it’s hard for English speakers, it’s even harder for LEP patients. It’s important for healthcare providers to be thoughtful in their approach to language access, so that patients who don’t speak English are able to understand their health and take an active role in their care. Misunderstandings in healthcare settings can have dire consequences. A misdiagnosis due to language barriers, a failure to follow prescribed treatments, or misunderstanding post-treatment instructions can all lead to compromised health outcomes. It’s important to provide a little extra support to LEP patients to lower the chances of such misunderstandings taking place. The first step toward fully supporting and caring for LEP patients is to devise a language access plan and put it into action. Working with interpreters, translators, and language service providers is a good way to ensure that your patient-facing communications are accessible in languages other than English. It’s also important for healthcare organizations to invest in training their front-line staff so that they’re prepared to work with LEP patients and have adequate cross-cultural communication skills. Here’s a checklist of things front-line staff need to keep in mind when working with LEP patients: A patient’s English skills should never be a barrier to quality healthcare. At Avantpage, we believe it’s absolutely critical to provide an extra layer of support for LEP patients — here’s how you can train your front-line staff to work with individuals with LEP and ease their journey in navigating the healthcare system: At Avantpage, we’re proud to have spent the last 27 years helping LEP patients navigate the healthcare system. If you’re looking to improve the health outcomes of LEP patients in your organization, Avantpage is here to help with translation, interpreting, localization services and more. Contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040 for more details. 

It should come as no surprise that strong health literacy is associated with more positive health outcomes.  Health literacy — that is, an individual’s ability to understand and utilize information on health and medical care — is an important part of being able to advocate for yourself in a healthcare setting, whether that’s at the emergency room or a routine check-up. In one 2022 study, researchers found that hospital patients with poor health literacy were more likely to revisit the hospital 90 days after discharge than patients with adequate health literacy. But developing a strong sense of health literacy can be difficult — especially since a good deal of medical literature and information is presented in complex, inaccessible language. Even more challenging is developing a strong sense of health literacy when you have visual impairments that make it difficult to read this information in the first place. On its own, then, accessible language isn’t enough — healthcare providers also need to ensure blind and low-vision patients have access to health information in alternative formats like braille, audio recordings, and large print. In providing a breadth of information in various accessible formats, healthcare providers can promote improved health outcomes for all of their patients. The beginning of October marks National Disability Employment Awareness Month, a time to highlight the importance of making healthcare information and services accessible to all individuals, regardless of their abilities. In this blog post, we’ll explore the crucial role of health literacy in achieving positive health outcomes and explore ways to improve health literacy using accessible language and alternative formats. The vast majority of people in the US have limited health literacy — according to Pfizer, just 12% of people in the nation are proficient when it comes to their health literacy. Health literacy isn’t necessarily about being able to understand medical jargon or decipher dense medical texts — after all, regular patients can’t be expected to understand health and medicine at the same level as trained doctors, nurses, or pharmacists. Health literacy, then, is more about being able to parse through the information a doctor or healthcare provider gives you in a way that allows you to make informed decisions about your well-being. Individuals who are health literate are better prepared to navigate the healthcare system and can play a more active role in their medical care. People with limited health literacy often struggle to fully understand their health conditions. They may also struggle with figuring out how to properly apply their medications and maintain good health overall. Consequently, they may experience poorer overall health, higher healthcare costs, and an increased likelihood of rehospitalization and mortality. On the other hand, individuals with better health literacy are more likely to experience improved health outcomes. They can better comprehend basic health information, communicate effectively with healthcare providers, and make informed decisions about their care. As such, it’s in everyone’s best interest to close the gaps in health literacy. With a more health literate population, hospitals can reduce readmission rates, in turn lowering the amount of stress placed on our healthcare system and improving health outcomes for society as a whole. One of the first steps to closing gaps in health literacy is to ensure that patient-facing documents and other materials are provided in accessible language. That means language that’s welcoming and easy to understand. While there’s a time and place for medical jargon, it’s important that complex topics are presented in a way that’s actually meaningful to the patient. If you’re looking to provide patients with information that can boost their health literacy, you may want to look at some of your pre-existing materials — flyers, brochures, webpages, etc. may benefit from a complete rehaul to clean things up. It’s important for every step of the patient journey to be as accessible and understandable as possible — from scheduling appointments online to informational pamphlets about a specific health condition. Read our guide on plain language to learn more about how you can present information to patients in an easily understandable fashion that sheds light on their health condition. Here are just a few of the benefits of using accessible language with your patients: However, we shouldn’t stop at accessible language. Some groups face unique barriers when it comes to health literacy. For example, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have noted that individuals with visual impairments may struggle more in honing their health literacy skills due to the fact that they’re less able to access certain visual cues that can aid them in deciphering relevant medical texts. As such, it’s important to refine this approach by making sure that relevant materials are accessible in alternative formats for people with visual impairments. Here are a few examples of alternative formats that can be used to ensure that people of diverse abilities are able to access your content: Once you’ve written your materials in accessible language, it’s time to work with an alternative format service provider to make sure that your content is accessible for every patient. By providing patients with accessible information in various alternative formats, you can help elevate your patients’ health literacy and improve outcomes for all. As we recognize National Disability Employment Awareness Month this year, we encourage healthcare providers to take the following steps to promote health literacy: At Avantpage, we’re committed to supporting healthcare organizations in their journey toward improved accessibility. We offer a comprehensive range of alternative format services, including audio, braille, and large print, to ensure that healthcare information is accessible to all — if you’re looking to boost health literacy among your patients, contact us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040.

In times of emergency, effective communication becomes paramount. Being able to understand and be understood can be a matter of life or death in emergencies. Rush translations — i.e., translations that are produced within a tight deadline, usually within 24 hours of the original request and some regulations requiring translation turnaround in as low as 4 hours — play a critical role in breaking language barriers when communication is especially urgent. These services can ensure that vital information reaches those who need it most. It’s especially common for public health organizations, emergency departments, and public information offices to request rush translations to facilitate urgent communication. For example, local health departments might request rush translations of a document warning members of the community about a disease outbreak, while a hospital emergency room might need to rush translate a patient’s old medical documents from a foreign language to give them adequate care. The urgency of rush translations means that there’s even less room for error when it comes to their production. While some agencies might be tempted to use quick and widely accessible tools like Google Translate to prepare an emergency translation, this is not a responsible approach, as it can create an unreliable translation. Instead, it’s important for agencies involved in providing emergency services to work closely with a trusted language service provider (LSP) that’s able to provide quick translation services on the fly. Emergency organizations can form partnerships with LSPs to contract rush translation services before an emergency strikes, allowing for the delivery of quick translations when they’re needed. In this blog post, we’ll explain why rush translations play such an important role in providing adequate emergency services. Read on to learn about the ins and outs of translation services for emergencies — or jump down to the Summary section for a quick recap.
It can be challenging enough to create and distribute effective communications in one language when you’re handling an emergency. But it’s vital to emergency management that agencies provide equally accessible communications materials to individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP). LSPs can help you tremendously with this, but there are also things that you can do on your end to streamline the process and ensure that your organization’s most urgent and time-sensitive communications are translated effectively. Here are four important factors to consider when preparing multilingual communications in response to an emergency: One common challenge associated with rush translations is the potential risk of reduced quality due to the need for speedy delivery. Emergency communications have to occur rapidly, as they typically deal with time-sensitive content. But just because rush translations are produced according to a faster timeline than your usual translation, doesn’t mean that you can cut any corners. Here are some ways that your organization can ensure high-quality rush translations: They wouldn’t be called “rush” translations if there weren’t a need for speed. Emergency communications and documents are typically quite time-sensitive, so it’s important to request rush translations as soon as possible.  Whether you’re facing federally imposed time constraints or simply have urgent communication needs, try employing the following strategies to help expedite the translation process: The need for fast turnaround and additional requirements can often lead to higher costs for rush translations. And it makes sense — when a rush translation request comes in, LSPs and their translators may have to put other projects on the back burner, or expand the number of linguists on a project, to ensure the timely delivery of your translation. Plus, emergency services may also require additional considerations and add-ons, such as a trauma-informed care qualifications or HIPAA compliance. However, strategic planning can help optimize the use of language services while minimizing expenses: Maintaining confidentiality is crucial for many organizations, and the level of required confidentiality may vary. Each organization and document will have different requirements — an emergency management agency producing public-facing communications will of course have fewer confidentiality restrictions (if any) than a hospital requesting a rush translation of a patient’s medical documents. To ensure that your LSP understands and meets your confidentiality needs, consider doing the following:
In emergencies, effective communication is vital, and rush translations help bridge language barriers, ensuring critical information is conveyed promptly. Here are some important factors that agencies must consider when commissioning rush translation services from LSPs. Managing emergencies is stressful — but the right LSP can ease the burden of producing multilingual communications. AvantPage is proud to provide rush translations to all kinds of emergency management organizations and agencies. Reach out to us today at [email protected] or (530) 750-2040 to learn more about how we can help you manage your multilingual emergency communications effectively.