6/24/2019
SB197
An Act Protecting Consumers of Sign Language and Oral Interpretation and Transliteration

Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure

The Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association (MHA), on behalf of our member hospitals, health systems, physician organizations, and allied health care providers, appreciates the opportunity to submit comments in opposition to SB197, An Act protecting consumers of sign language and oral interpretation and transliteration.

The hospital community has collaborated over the years with the Department of Public Health and the Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (MCDHH) to develop proposals to increase the number of qualified medical interpreters within hospitals, community based clinics, and health centers. While we support continued efforts to increase the number of qualified interpreters, SB197, as drafted, would actually delay access to medically necessary health care services.

The provider community strongly supports all efforts to ensure that interpreters - in particular medical interpreters - have appropriate training and experience to assist with effective communication. However, there continues to be a general shortage of available and qualified medical interpreters within the state who are able to be called upon on a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week basis when needed for emergency inpatient and/or routine outpatient services. In fact, healthcare providers are already often forced to pay higher costs for interpreter time and travel to various sites for emergency services because of the lack of available medical interpreters who can provide in-person services in certain service areas. Because of this shortage, hospitals have to rely, at times, on staff, family members of patients, and video relay systems developed by out-of-state companies with medically trained interpreters on staff.

SB197, as drafted, would prevent hospitals and other healthcare facilities from utilizing available resources by requiring that any qualified interpreters are limited to those registered with the MCDHH. If available employees, family members, or interpreter service companies are not able to be utilized because they are not registered with the state and are therefore deemed “unqualified,” patients will have to wait long hours while an available state-registered interpreter is found.

While SB197 does include language that would permit the use of video remote interpreting in an emergency situation only after a bona fide attempt has been made to obtain a qualified interpreter, such service would be very limited in scope and could only be used until a qualified interpreter arrives. The bill would still prevent the effective and efficient use of technology, such as closed caption and other video communication systems, to ensure that providers and patients are able to communicate quickly and effectively when a patient needs outpatient level services. The cost of using such electronic systems is very low and these video communication systems rely upon qualified medical interpreters certified by nationally recognized bodies such as the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) or National Association for the Deaf (NAD) that are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is our belief that SB197 would require each company to meet both Massachusetts and nationally recognized licensure and registration standards, which would appear to be infeasible from both an operational and financial perspective. As a result, providers would be discouraged from using these services.

While MHA understands that the intent of SB197 is to develop a centralized registration process to ensure the quality and accuracy of oral interpretation for the deaf and hard of hearing, we urge the committee to consider the necessity of maintaining flexibility in order to prevent delays in access care for all patients.

Thank you for the opportunity to offer testimony on these issues. If you have any questions or require further information, please contact Michael Sroczynski, MHA's Senior Vice President of Government Advocacy at (781) 262-6055 or msroczynski@mhalink.org