No one dials customer service just for a chat—policyholders calling your customer support representatives have urgent needs or want a status update on a claim. As the public face of your health insurance company, reps must be patient but thorough as they read, digest and relay crucial details about a policy or claim.
Now, imagine picking up the phone as a limited-English speaker and being unsure if you’ll be able
As the fate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is debated in Washington, D.C., health insurance providers across the country are laying new foundations built for long-term, steady growth.
In this two-part series, we’re detailing how health insurance companies can maintain profitability by employing professional language services. In our last blog post, we focused on how health insurance companies can leverage real-time language services data and high-quality translation and interpreting support to streamline market research costs and strengthen customer retention. In this post, we’ll examine how health insurance companies can employ language services to broaden their customer bases and improve outreach to Limited English Proficient (LEP) policyholders.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) fundamentally shifted the health insurance landscape:
- The requirement that health insurers accept policyholders regardless of preexisting conditions puts on the pressure to find additional opportunities for revenue and profits.
- On the flip side, the individual mandate and Health Insurance Exchange have pushed a
It’s that time of year again. Today the Marketplace Open Enrollment Period commences, and Americans across the country will be shopping for new health insurance plans for 2017 coverage. If you’re a health insurance provider, you’re braced for the influx of calls that’ll be pouring into your call centers – many are confused applicants who are getting health insurance for the first time. Your call center agents are probably prepared for all of the questions, but are they prepared for all of the languages?
The final ruling of Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) put major changes in motion regarding individuals’ ability to access health care and coverage. The law prohibits discrimination based on age, sex, disability, race, color and national origin, which includes the language an individual speaks.
The enhancement of language assistance for individuals classified as Limited English Proficient (those who speak English less than "very well”) is just one piece of the puzzle in the law's efforts to reduce disparities in healthcare. Since the final rule was implemented, language services have been a hot topic for many health insurers and providers. However, the rule, which is extensively outlined in a whopping 99-page document, isn’t entirely easy to digest.
Questions such as ‘Does Section 1557 affect me?’ and ‘How do I comply with the language access requirements?’ often arise. To help make sense of the law (and answer these questions), we’re breaking down exactly who the law affects, and how those affected can become compliant with the language access requirements, with two simple flowcharts:
In May 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued the final rule implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in certain health programs and activities.
The final rule aims to expand access to health care and coverage and reduce health disparities by enhancing language assistance for individuals with limited English proficiency* and protecting individuals with disabilities.
