Inland Empire Health Plan launches program to improve patient, provider communication

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Jan 31, 2025, 16:30 ET

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif., Jan. 31, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- To help address language barriers between patients and medical staff, Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) launched an access pilot program offering interpreting training/testing and bilingual fluency qualification services to its provider network at no cost.

IEHP teamed up with LanguageLine Solutions for its Provider Medical Interpretation (PMI) program, which enrolled over 120 provider staff for its inaugural cohort from October through December 2024. IEHP expects to launch additional cohorts later this year.

Inland Empire Health Plan’s new Provider Medical Interpretation Pilot program looks to strengthen the patient-provider relationship.

The local health plan partnered with LanguageLine Solutions to offer in-person or online interpreting training/testing and bilingual fluency qualification services to its provider network at no cost.

Native Spanish speakers make up the largest of IEHP’s threshold language population, with 24% Medi-Cal and 34% of DualChoice health plan members selecting Spanish as their language preference in 2024.

Classes could last up to four weeks depending on which course module is selected.

"While IEHP offers language interpreter services, requests for translators to accompany patients to medical appointments must be made at least five days in advance. Having qualified staff at providers offices would eliminate translator service wait times or the need for a family member to step in to provide support," said Rosana Ayala, a health equity programs liaison at IEHP and project lead. "Courses were open to everyone—nurses, medical assistants, admins—and so far, everyone seems to be responding to the program with extreme positivity."

PMI training courses were available in-person or online. Participating provider offices had the option to select from two assessment options:

Interpretation assessments, which focus on interactions between two people and consist of either an eInterpreter Skills Test (eIST) or a Medical Certification Test (MCT).
Language assessments which target direct communication with a patient or family member. They include an eBilingual Fluency Assessment (eBFA) and an eBilingual Fluency Assessment for Clinicians (eBFAC).

Those who complete the Medical Certification Test assessment can qualify to become a language-certified interpreter.

For Natzary Rosales-Garcia, a medical assistant with Rialto-based Metropolitan Clinic, speaking directly with patients builds stronger relationships and minimizes confusion in a setting where 95% of the clinic's patient population are native Spanish speakers.

"The biggest benefit of the program is learning how to accurately translate medical terminology from English to Spanish," she said. "Sometimes it's hard to translate exact symptoms because they are different from one language to the other, but our trainer is helping us to understand words we can and should use. That helps a lot."

LanguageLine Solutions estimates the U.S.'s foreign-born population will nearly double over the next four decades. Out of IEHP's four threshold languages—English, Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese—24% of Medi-Cal and 34% of DualChoice members selected Spanish as their preferred language in 2024.

IEHP's provider relations team will notify in-network providers when registration opens for the next PMI program cohort.

To learn more about IEHP's interpreter service options, go to iehp.org.

About IEHP

With a mission to heal and inspire the human spirit, Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP) is one of the top 10 largest Medicaid health plans, the largest not-for-profit Medicare-Medicaid public health plan in the country, and for the fourth year in a row, certified as A Great Place To Work^®. Founded in 1996, IEHP supports more than 1.5 million Riverside and San Bernardino County residents enrolled in Medicaid or IEHP DualChoice (those with both Medi-Cal and Medicare). As of 2024, IEHP also offers Covered California plans, further ensuring health care access for even more IE residents. Today, IEHP has a robust network of quality doctors throughout our two counties and nearly 4,000 team members who are fully committed to the vision: We will not rest until our communities enjoy optimal care and vibrant health. To learn more, go to iehp.org.

SOURCE Inland Empire Health Plan (IEHP)