October 11th Hospital Language Services Release

Pictured (right to left) - Mara Youdelman, National Health Law Program; Romana Hasnain-Wynia of HRET; Leighton Ku, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; and Cristina Krasny of WakeMed Health and Hospitals.

The vast majority of hospitals – 80 percent – frequently treat patients with limited English proficiency, providing them critical language services.  However only 3 percent of hospitals reported receiving any reimbursement for those services.

Hospitals and health systems encounter patients who speak a wide variety of languages from Spanish and Chinese to Vietnamese and Arabic. 
- 15 different languages are encountered often by more than 20 percent of US hospitals

52 million people – 19 percent of the US population – speak a language other than English at home.

Materials from the Hospital Language Services Survey

 Full Report
 Issue Brief
 Press Release
 Web cast