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Avantpage is a full-service translation, localization and interpretation company with extensive experience in the healthcare space as well as in social services, education, government and Medicare. We facilitate effective communication through translation and other linguistic services. Our team of translators, localization experts and linguistic specialists will help you overcome language, cultural and social barriers to communicate more effectively with your Limited English Proficient clientele. At Avantpage, we have established ourselves as a linguistically competent organization: we are able to identify the right resources for the right language need presented by our clients. We possess a deep understanding of the different nuances and complexities of language. Our translation and localization efforts demonstrate expertise in the subtleties of language, including cultural differences, dialect, style, reading level, and more. We are familiar with the sensitivity needed to work with diverse groups, dialects and cultural norms that may adversely affect communication. We have expertise in numerous core languages as well as in eastern African languages, including Amharic (national language of Ethiopia), Tigrinya (spoken in the North) and Oromo (spoken in West, South and East). Avantpage has worked with a number of different Health and Human Services providers. Our translation services enable these entities to communicate their programs and services more easily, provide information in any language, and ensure that those who need these services can understand and receive access to them. Health and Human Services organizations are critical to the welfare of communities, individuals and families. Avantpage can translate your information regarding medical care, mental health, nutrition, housing, education, counseling and more into 150 languages using experienced, native-speaking translators, state-of-the-art translation technology and the use of customized style guides and glossaries. We also provide desktop publishing, website and software localization and other services. The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program is a federally-funded program that supports pregnant women, new mothers (and fathers), infants and children under age five. WIC helps families by providing information on topics like breastfeeding, infant nutrition, infant and child behavior, pregnancy, healthy eating and more. WIC has been an Avantpage client since 2010, and we have translated brochures, posters, flyers, worksheets, shopping guides, questionnaires and other documents into Spanish, Vietnamese, Hmong, Russian, Traditional Chinese and (Eastern) Armenian. We are contracted to work with WIC through 2018, and are glad to be a part of an organization that is so instrumental in helping others improve the lives of children and families. About AvantpageWhen you choose Avantpage, you are partnering with a specialized, highly qualified translation provider with extensive knowledge and experience in your industry. Our translations save you time and money, ensure you comply with regulations and help you connect in any language. For more information, contact us today!

If not, maybe it's time to take another look! Our clients who use it, love it and here's why: AvantFlow--our signature online translation management system--is a free-of-charge, easy, systematic way to request quotes and projects from us. It also serves as a secure online central repository to store and retrieve all your translation project files. In addition, you can also use AvantFlow to instantly check project status, give detailed project instructions, upload source files, assign due dates and deadlines, and much more. To schedule your 15-minute demo, call me at 530-750-2040, x3, or email me at laura@avantpage.com. The demo will give you an idea of how AvantFlow works, how simple it is to use, and how effective it can be in requesting/storing projects and monitoring ongoing work.I look forward to hearing from you! Laura Kujubu, VP of Customer Relations

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has strict marketing guidelines in place to protect Medicare customers and potential Medicare prospects from overly aggressive sales and marketing techniques aimed at those in fragile health.  If you are preparing Medicare marketing materials, make sure that you are not violating any of the requirements or guidelines put forth by CMS. To learn more about CMS, visit their website at www.CMS.gov. The marketing guidelines put forth by CMS cover a wide range of marketing materials, including Health plans are responsible for ensuring that all marketing materials such as those described above and directed toward Medicare beneficiaries conform to CMS standards and are submitted to CMS for approval and acceptance. CMS marketing requirements are described in detail in the CMS document entitled Medicare Marketing Guidelines. CMS just recently revised this document for the 2014 contract year. CMS released the draft document for public comment on March 25, 2013, and received over 1,000 comments from 86 entities, including MAOs, PDP sponsors, consumer advocacy groups, pharmacy associations, health plan associations, and State departments of health. After analyzing the comments received from these entities, a final revision was completed in June of 2013. To access the newly revised final guidelines as a PDF file, click here. The Medicare Marketing Guidelines document provides a comprehensive overview of all Medicare Marketing Guidelines and it is recommended that health plan marketers become familiar with its contents and use it as a reference guide when creating new marketing materials, campaigns, advertising or other communication outreach to Medicare members and prospects. Keep in mind that CMS periodically reviews plan sponsor marketing materials either by random sample, during regularly scheduled contract compliance visits, and through “secret shopper” activities. To learn more and get started on a comprehensive, cost-effective Medicare marketing translation program, contact us today!

As an Avantpage client, the more you know about the translation process and how it works, the easier it is to create efficiencies and take advantage of savings opportunities. And the more you work with us, the more we learn about your organization, your clients and your translation preferences. This enables us to make educated recommendations and create a customized translation program for your organization. We’ve put together 5 more smart strategies for lowering translation costs. These ideas will help you work productively with us to implement and maintain a cost-effective translation program within your organization. Read here for the first 5 on our list! During the review cycle, you’ll save time and effort if you submit your changes electronically and avoid handwritten notes or scans. These requests are hard to read and difficult to implement. They add time to the project that you could end up paying for and could also impact the document’s quality if the comments are illegible or difficult for us to understand. The review process is much more efficient if the changes are made within the files themselves. If you are in MS Word, use the “Track Changes” option. If you are in a PDF, use the comments tool to indicate your edits. A source document is the original file your piece was created in, and it is editable on our end. We also call it the native document.  Examples of file types are: MS Word, Publisher, InDesign, etc. A PDF is basically a snapshot of the source file; it’s not a file we can work with when doing desktop publishing. If given a PDF, we will recreate your file as best we can, but unfortunately, it’s not the same thing as a source file—and time we spend recreating files adds cost. Uneditable documents are PDFs, faxes and scans (such as a scan of a medical record). We know that the person submitting a translation project to us is most likely not the creator of the original file, but it’s definitely worth the time and cost savings to track down the source/editable/native file in advance of sending us the project. It’s also very helpful to verify there are no password restrictions with the file or to provide password information to us if necessary. Although it’s tempting to want us to get a translation started while you finalize the  English version of the project, this is a process doomed to mistakes and inefficiencies. It is best to have us start the translation process after you’re sure your source file text is final and approved. In the long run, you’ll save time and reduce the probability of mistakes. Another way to avoid extra fees is to plan out your schedule so there are no rush charges incurred. These fees vary by project size, but generally, we ask for two business days per file (about 1,500 words per day). Feel free to consult with your Avantpage Project Manager about turnaround times and delivery dates. Work backwards from your deadline, and stay in communication with your project manager to ensure everyone’s on the same page when it comes to delivery dates and deadlines. We encourage all our clients to use our online project management system, AvantFlow. AvantFlow enables you to monitor your projects, request quotes, upload project files, leave special instructions and assign due dates. You can also retrieve past projects, store and organize project information and data and instantly access completed projects. The alternative to this is using email or calling to submit projects. If you’ve ever had to go through old “sent” emails to find a file or re-read communication notes, you know that it can take a lot of time and be frustrating, too. In AvantFlow, all files and notes are in the same online place—and as the client, you have full control over projects, revisions and deadlines. At Avantpage, we're committed to keeping our clients informed. Contact Avantpage at (530) 750-2040 or at sales@avantpage.com for more information.

Translation is fast becoming a critical piece of every smart organization’s repertoire. Whether your organization is global or local, communicating to clients, prospects and customers in their own languages is critical to your success. Translation of pertinent documents gives you the ability to connect with people of many languages and cultures and those who are Limited English Proficient. Accurate translation also ensures that you remain in compliance with regulatory agencies that monitor translation requirements at the local, state and national level. At Avantpage, we focus on bridging communication across cultures through translation. Our extensive suite of translation services allows organizations to create documentation and written materials that reach out to clients, customers and prospects through a variety of languages. As an Avantpage client, the more you know about the translation process and how it works, the easier it is to create efficiencies and take advantage of savings opportunities. And the more you work with us, the more we learn about your organization, your clients and your translation preferences. This enables us to make educated recommendations and create a customized translation program for your organization. We’ve put together 5 smart strategies for lowering translation costs. These ideas will help you work productively with us to implement and maintain a cost-effective translation program within your organization. Check back next week for 5 more! Our Translation Memory (TM) software allows you to save specific terminology and style preferences for use on subsequent translations. TM also allows multiple translators to use the same assets in real time and work concurrently, and lets work on a project proceed with multiple languages simultaneously. This streamlines the translation process and makes each subsequent translation more cost-effective for you. You’ll also find that TM contributes to lowering costs by increasing translation quality and consistency, ensuring faster delivery times and giving you greater control over every aspect of your project. Real-time progress reports, simultaneous translation, correction and proofreading, more effective file filters and better stylistic and terminology compliance are just some of the stand-out advantages TM brings to the table. Style Guides and Glossaries are critical for ensuring consistency and accuracy of your documents. This in turn lowers your costs by streamlining the translation process over time. Style Guides and Glossaries are compiled manually and reflect your organization’s specific preferences for translating certain terms, words, phrases, acronyms, etc. To create a client glossary, our team of language specialists will go through a sample set of your files and select terms that would need to be translated consistently for all your documents. Next, they will create a list of suggested translations and submit the list for your consideration. You would then have the option to review these terms and provide us with feedback. Once the terms are finalized, the glossary is uploaded to our online translation system and the terms are automatically highlighted so that the translators are aware that there is a “rule” in place about how to translate this particular terminology. Style Guides let translators know linguistic and stylistic preferences (such as the audience and tone of the document). When we work with our clients, different opinions in writing style may create a great deal of back-and-forth communications, which can slow the translation process. Knowing in advance how you would prefer we handle things like acronyms, grammatical preferences, punctuation, audience reading level/background, etc., allows us to work more quickly and accurately to tailor the translation pieces. You can avoid being charged minimum fees on brief documents by bundling your translation projects together. If the amount of text for translation is very small, a minimum fee is charged instead of applying our usual per-word rate. The minimum fee is agreed upon with the client and is charged on a per-language basis, which means that if the same small document is translated into more than one language, the minimum fee will be applied to each language that the document is being translated into. It is important to make sure that you group brief documents together. This will help you avoid minimum charges. Translation project planning is key to making your projects as streamlined and cost-effective as possible. Prior to the project starting, feel free to consult with your Avantpage project manager about how to format your documents for translation, when they need to be delivered and what services you need us to provide for you. Also take into consideration that some languages have longer translation times than others, and plan your projects and deadlines accordingly. For example, 100 words in Spanish can be done the same day, but the same 100 words in Samoan may take two days or more. Also, be aware that we don´t have a translator in-house for each language, so even if it´s just three sentences, we still need to locate available translators and work with their schedules. When we submit a translation back to a new client for approval, the client sometimes has an internal reviewer read and sign off on the translation. Too often, organizations choose a bilingual employee or someone else who is not a linguist and not qualified. Incorrect changes may then be requested and mistakes introduced into a professionally translated document. This slows the process, jeopardizes the deadline and adds unnecessary costs to the project’s final price tag. It is important to make sure your reviewers are qualified—native speakers, authority on the subject matter, etc. Plus, make sure they’re available when you need them as part of the project schedule. That way, valuable time and effort is not lost through miscommunication and misinformation. At Avantpage, we're committed to keeping our  clients informed. Contact Avantpage at (530) 750-2040 or at info@avantpage.com for more information.

As a translation services provider, Avantpage is poised to offer expertise, services, information and guidance to health plans, healthcare providers, health organizations and others who are either directly or indirectly involved with healthcare reform. We have extensive experience reaching out to Hispanic markets through Spanish language initiatives, and we specialize in culturally appropriate, effective messaging that is accurate and high-quality. We recently attended a presentation from California Endowment at The State of the Healthcare Conference in Sacramento, CA on April 23, 2013, and we’d like to share some of the insights and information gleaned from our experience. In California, there are seven million uninsured individuals, with Latinos representing 61% of this population. Once healthcare reform goes into full effect, these people will be newly eligible for coverage through Covered California, California’s health benefit exchange.  Outreach efforts to reach this population require a multi-pronged approach. These efforts should include partnering with Latino media outlets (Univision, Telemundo, La Opinion, and Radio Bilingue) sponsoring and initiating community awareness and enrollment events, and working with hospitals and care providers to promote wellness and informational programs. It is important for health plans to reach out to uninsured Latinos now, and let them know that you offer what’s most important to them: Prevention was found to be the #1 most important message to use when reaching out to uninsured Latinos. This market is very responsive to the use of wellness checkups, preventative care and other measures to keep families and children healthy. Latinos are highly concerned about price, value and financial security. Tailor your message so that you focus on these issues and address affordability concerns. This market tends to view doctors as highly respected and trusted professionals. Make sure that you provide comprehensive information regarding the medical professionals available through your plan. Over half of uninsured Latinos speak Spanish (alone and with English) at home. It is critical that your message, outreach materials, website and documentation is presented in Spanish, using high-quality translation that addresses cultural norms, reading levels and accessible translation of medical and insurance language. When referring to healthcare reform, “Obamacare” is the preferred term among Latinos, according to Survey of CA Latinos, March 2013. Reaching Spanish-speaking populations regarding new healthcare initiatives is critical as healthcare reform moves into its final phase of implementation. Health plans must take action now in order to present information, benefits, and features in ways that are understandable and accessible to Hispanic markets. For more information on how you can tailor your services to meet the needs of your Hispanic audience, contact us today! Avantpage can offer suggestions, guidance and information for putting together a comprehensive, cost-effective translation program to help you communicate more effectively, increase your market share and secure new business.

Communication is key in healthcare—from reading admissions forms to following hospital signage and understanding discharge instructions. And with almost 47 million people in the United States speaking a language other than English, translation is an essential component of safe, effective, and quality healthcare. To ensure that Limited English Proficient (LEP) patients receive the level of care that they are entitled to, the Joint Commission created communication and language standards that went into effect in January 2011. Hospitals and healthcare organizations seeking Joint Commission accreditation must comply with these standards, which include: The Joint Commission is dedicated to improving quality of care through better communication between patients and healthcare providers, providing guidance throughout a patient’s healthcare continuum, including admission, assessment, treatment, end-of-life care, discharge and transfer, and organization readiness. By creating the communication and language standards, the Commission has taken an important step toward facilitating improved patient-provider interaction. When patients can communicate, understand, and follow instructions in their own language, there is less chance of medical misunderstandings and errors that can affect a patient’s health outcome. Is your healthcare organization at risk of non-compliance with the Joint Commission’s language and communication standards? If so, it could have an adverse effect on federal funding in accordance with Title VI regulations. LEP individuals must have meaningful language access to programs and services, or healthcare organizations risk federal funding for programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), research grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or National Institutes of Health. Don’t risk your accreditation status! Translate your vital documents into the languages most commonly encountered, using qualified translators. This will help ensure accuracy and readability, and support effective patient-provider communication. Compliance with Joint Commission Standards is a critical component of any healthcare organization’s care continuum. At Avantpage, we’re fully versed in and adhere to Joint Commission Standards, and work closely with healthcare organizations to translate all types of documentation, signage, website, and other written materials into threshold languages. Contact Avantpage today for more information on how to meet the needs of LEP patients, provide better healthcare patient-centered services and outcomes, and assure compliance with Joint Commission Standards.

Last week, we presented Part 1 of our Covered California FAQs, where we discussed ways you can improve your translation efforts toward LEP individuals, capture a greater share of new health plan prospects, and transform new plan members into lifelong customers. Here is Part 2 of this report: While health plans may be tempted to wait until they know for sure that they are certified as Covered California qualified health plans before starting the translation process, this approach could backfire, causing them to miss out on new enrollees. It makes good business sense to choose your language services provider now, so you can start working together to create a project timeline and complete translation projects. Avantpage makes the planning process an easy, stress-free one that ensures high-quality, accurate health care translations. As a translation services vendor that specializes in healthcare, Avantpage can make a significant difference in communication with your Limited English Proficient (LEP) audience. We work with the California Department of Public Health, California WIC program, Delta Dental, Altamed Health Services, Alameda Alliance for Health, MESVision and others, and we are experts at effectively and accurately communicating complex healthcare information to LEP audiences. We can help your organization get a language assistance program up and running, enabling you to take full advantage of new member enrollment opportunities due to Covered California. Enrollment in these government-funded groups is likely to increase substantially due to Healthcare Reform and Covered California. You may already be translating into Spanish and Chinese, but there are other critical threshold languages you should be targeting to reach new members. It will be impossible to grow market share in the very competitive healthcare arena without translating into threshold languages such as Arabic, Armenian, Cambodian (Khmer), Farsi, Hmong, Korean, Russian, Tagalog and Vietnamese, in addition to Chinese and Spanish. Covered California represents an exciting opportunity for health plans to reach out to a vast new audience of potential customers. Approximately two million Californians and 300,000 small businesses are expected to purchase insurance through Covered California within its first few years, and the numbers are expected to rise from there. Connecting with this pool of potential customers hinges on clear, accurate communication. You’ll need to ramp up translation efforts and implement new strategies in order to present your health benefits plan in a way that is understandable, approachable and appealing to consumers. If your organization is serious about attracting new business through Covered California, translation strategies will play a key role in your ability to thrive within the highly competitive health plan marketplace. Choose a translation services provider you trust, set the process in motion now and look forward to substantially increasing your market share once Covered California opens for business When you choose Avantpage, you are partnering with a specialized, highly qualified healthcare translation provider with extensive knowledge and experience in the industry. Our translations save you time and money, ensure you comply with regulations and help you connect in any language. For more information on how you can tailor your services to meet the needs of your LEP patients, contact us today! Avantpage can offer suggestions, guidance and information for putting together a comprehensive, cost-effective translation program to help you communicate more effectively, increase your market share and secure new business.

Since 2011, Avantpage has closely followed the progress of Covered California, California’s new health benefit exchange program. We’ve kept abreast of new developments and provided our translation clients with information and updates as we’ve received them. In this special report, we’ve compiled information and answers to some of the most pressing language access concerns expressed by health plans: When should translation efforts be initiated? What written and online materials should be translated, and into how many languages? Are there ACA requirements in place we should be aware of? We've gathered some healthcare translation FAQs that will help you:  As a result, you’ll improve your communication efforts toward LEP individuals, capture a greater share of new health plan prospects, and transform new plan members into lifelong customers. In October 2013, Covered California will begin actively enrolling hundreds of thousands of residents for healthcare coverage. Because of the large amount of new materials and information that must be translated prior to the implementation of Covered California, it is vital that health plan providers have a solid language assistance strategy in place. In fact, a recent article in The Sacramento Bee* stated that the biggest challenge in 2013 for Covered California will be “Overcoming language and social barriers to persuade hundreds of thousands of residents to sign up for subsidized health insurance.” *Covered California Boss Must Set Up –Stat!– A New Health Care System, Kevin Yamamura, The Sacramento Bee, December 28, 2012 Once you’ve chosen a Language Services Provider to work with, it’s wise to start by choosing vital documents in your most crucial languages, and translating these projects first. It’s easier to build a “library” of translated documents over time than it is to try to get everything accomplished at once. Don’t lose out on gaining new members through Covered California because your translated documents are not ready. It’s certain that other health plans will be there ahead of you, translations in place, ready to take full advantage of Covered California’s new pool of enrollees. Covered California will have its own translated materials for marketing and outreach programs in place to connect with LEP residents, but these materials will not cover information about specific health plans. Health plan providers will be responsible for translating all online materials, information and documentation into their threshold languages. It is imperative that health plans begin preliminary work now in order to partner with translation providers they trust and begin the translation process. Check back next week for Part II of our FAQs!

According to a recent article in the New York Times*, the new state-run healthcare exchanges still have a long way to go before the October 1, 2013 deadline. The health exchanges are the cornerstone of the Affordable Care Act, and it is estimated that they will make health insurance available to up to 30 million people who are not currently covered. However, studies have shown that as many as three quarters of those eligible for this new coverage are completely unaware of their options. With the deadline for open enrollment looming, health care advocates, community organizers and consumer health care organizations are scrambling to get the word out. Compounding the problem: Among the people expected to sign up for coverage, one in four speak a language other than English at home, and three out of four have a high school diploma or less. In California, the state-run health exchange, Covered California, must reach five million people who communicate in 13 different languages and reside across an area encompassing 163,000 square miles. This underscores the importance of communicating not only in appropriate languages, but at appropriate reading levels as well. Translation services will play an essential role in removing language barriers and reaching out to these newest health care consumers. With political parties still at odds over the implementation of the new health care law, consumer confidence has been further eroded regarding health care reform.  Despite these hurdles, healthcare organizations and insurers are moving ahead to identify and reach out to the uninsured in anticipation of enrollment. Community outreach and education is necessary at every level to make uninsured consumers aware of their new healthcare options and encourage them to enroll. Translation will play a pivotal role in ensuring effective communication in the wide variety of languages necessary to reach out to these new health care consumers. * "Racing to Spread Word About New Health Plans", Robert Pear, April 23, 2013

At the recent 2013 MedAssets Business Summit, Avantpage spoke with numerous healthcare organizations regarding their language assistance needs and how they’re currently handling their written translations. Many representatives mentioned they rely on in-house translators to handle vital documents translations. Although this is often done in the hopes of reducing costs, using internal translators who have other job priorities and who also have not been professionally trained in translation runs the high risk of miscommunication – actually increasing costs in the long-run. In addition, the sheer number of vital documents required for translation can exceed the capabilities of in-house translator. The documents must also meet certain language assistance standards, such as the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care Standards (CLAS). To find out more about our impressions of the conference and what we learned, contact us at sales@avantpage.com. We'd love to share our ideas about how using a professional translation provider can provide high-quality translations to increase patient safety and satisfaction and reduce your costs.

Translating materials into other languages spoken by your Limited English Proficient (LEP) customers increases communication while supporting diverse cultures within your community. Translation also enables you to remain in compliance with language requirements set forth by state government regarding water issues. Working with a reputable, trusted translation firm is critical for communicating effectively with your LEP customers. Accurate, high-quality translation of documents, forms, letters and notifications keeps your customers informed –– and keeps you in compliance with California regulatory measures. Recent changes in state regulations now require water agencies to promptly notify LEP customers in their first language. Specifically, Assembly Bill 938, which went into effect on July 1, 2012, adds new legislative requirements for Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) members, including: Avantpage’s language services help businesses communicate, collaborate and function more effectively within a multicultural environment. Avantpage helps organizations in the public and private sector reach across language barriers and cultural differences. Translation enables people to create lasting professional relationships based on mutual understanding and crystal-clear communication. Avantpage was asked to translate a project for ACWA into 31 languages – Arabic, Armenian (Eastern), Armenian (Western), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Farsi, French, French Creole, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian) Portuguese (Continental), Russian, Serbo Croatian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, Urdu and Vietnamese.   Avantpage translated a total of 1,179 words into 31 languages. This project was challenging in that we had to coordinate 31 different translators, get them up to speed on translation requirements, and operate within a tight deadline. Teamwork between all departments and Avantpage’s collaborative culture helped to create a positive, tightly-focused working environment. Translators, project managers and IT experts all coordinated their efforts to deliver accurate, consistent, high-quality files on a rolling basis to meet the deadline. The result? A satisfied client who is now able to communicate directly and effectively with their LEP customers. Avantpage also developed a number of practical letter templates for ACWA that can be repurposed for different situations. These can be used to reach out to a large community of non-English speaking persons and keep them informed about the quality of their water. Founded 16 years ago, Avantpage is a translation industry leader serving government, education, healthcare, financial, legal and other sectors. We are located in Northern California, and have successfully completed state, national and international contracts, partnering with government and private entities. Call Avantpage today at 530-750-2040, x3, to get a detailed translation needs assessment and get on the path to compliance.