“This is a study of the effects of professional interpreter services on health visit levels and patterns of a sample of limited English proficient (LEP) patients. LEP patients refer to patients who speak a primary language other than English and who cannot speak English at all or speak English so poorly that they cannot communicate in English without assistance. Language services, including the use of professional interpreters, are seen as a facilitator variable in conventional health care models because they help patients with limited English to communicate with health care providers, and therefore access medical care. We expect language services to significantly reduce language barriers to health care. We evaluate the hypothesized role of interpreter services by conducting a secondary analysis of data derived from administrative records of two organizations, a large managed care organization and its contractor for interpreter services. Subjects for the study are 1,037 LEP members of the managed care organization. The effects of interpreter services on health utilization of LEP patients are analyzed over a four-year period, from 1995 to 1999. We compare several outcome measures two years before and after interpreter services were implemented in mid-1997. On the whole, findings provide support for the hypothesized role of interpreter services. LEP patients increased their health visits after the implementation of interpreter services. The increased utilization was larger for groups that can be considered to be most vulnerable to language barriers in accessing health care, including the elderly, the poor, and patients who had below average health visits prior to the implementation of interpreter services. Our evaluations of additional outcome measures yielded inconsistent findings. On some measures, for example, cancellations of appointments, the implementation of interpreter services was followed by what may be seen as positive changes. LEP patients increased their rate of cancellations of appointments. This effect of interpreter services represents a substantial reduction of costs associated with unkept appointments and wasted time of health providers. However, evaluations of other outcome measures failed to provide consistent support for the hypothesized role of interpreter services. For example, LEP patients’ use of emergency and urgent care visits increased, instead of the expected decline following the introduction of interpreter services.” – Publisher’s description
