Deaf interpreter

I am a  occupational medical facility. One of our companies sent over a deaf employee  with an injury.  The employee insisted on an interpreter that my company had the responsibility to paid.  This injuried worker does not use an interpreter at work. My company is less than 25 employees.  I am responsible to paid for the interpreter?

 

 

Comments

  • 4 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Did the company file a claim with their workers' compensation carrier?  If not, how are you charging the company for the claim?  I would add this into the cost of the claim.

    What state are you in?  You might check with the state dept of WC to see who would be liable for the cost, but I would suspect it would be something that either the company or WC would be responsible to reimiburse you for.

    However, if they do not and you were the one who called the interpreter, it might end up that you are responsible.  Did you have that customer//employee sign any paperwork that stated he/she would be responsible for any costs not paid by the WC insurance/employer? In the future, I would require either the company to send an interpreter with the deaf employee or require the employee to sign for any extra costs that are not covered.

  • This is an issue that many medical offices struggle with.  Title VI of the Civil Rights Act states that if you receive money from any federal program (Medicare, Medicaid, etc), you must ensure that there is no barrier to care for any patient that speaks another language.  The financial burden falls on the provider of health care and can be especially challenging for smaller offices, since they do not typically have trained interpreters on staff. 

     While our clinic has Spanish and Russian translators on staff, we do not have someone who is fluent in sign language.  When we see these patients we do a number of different things....we might communicate by writing (or by typing on a laptop) if the patient is able to do that, we might also contact one of the two hopsitals that our physicians have privileges at - larger hospitals often have a physician relations representative and often they are willing to help out in a difficult situation (i.e. by sending a hospital interpreter over). 

    Good luck....on the face of it, ensuring that there is no barrier sounds very noble but when the reimbursement for a Medicaid or Medicare visit is pennies on the dollar, it feels very unfair to pay more to an interpreting service than we ourselves are getting paid.  Take heart....we have a Spanish Speaking, Deaf and illiterate patient that we sometimes see....now there's a challenge.

  • [quote user="hwexler317"] <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

     This injured worker does not use an interpreter at work. [/quote]

    I agree with the previous poster about the requirements for those individuals in need of interpretation and your receiving government funds.  The advice about contacting larger medical providers was excellent and creative. 

    I think you need to separate what the employee has at work and the size of your company.  The ee might have things in place at work that allow them to do their job without the need for an interpreter, but wants to be sure that they get the correct information about a medical condition, especially one that involves an injury.  And that the doctor gets all the information in order to give the correct treatment. 

    We have Spanish speaking employees that speak and understand English for the most part, but any discussion I have with them regarding pay or discipline issues I have someone here to make sure that they are understood.  Not just for them, but for us as well. 

     

  • Think of it as insurance.  If you didn't provide this service and the deaf person misinterpreted what you said and injured him/herself more, your office could be faced with a malpractice suit.

    But I agree with the poster, there could be lots of reasons the deaf employee doesn't use an interpreter at work but would want one at the doctor's office.  Including the fact that the medical provider (doctor or nurse) had an "accent" that made it difficult for the deaf person to read lips.  The way a person forms their mouth, if they have a mustache or beard, if they don't open their mouth all the way, etc., can make it difficult to ready lips.

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