How can teams implement language solutions without going over budget? What’s considered “quality” translation and interpretation to begin with? And what’s the long-term return on investment?
These are just a few of the questions organizations have to ask themselves as they draft a procurement plan to include both translation and interpretation solutions.
For government agencies and hospitals, in particular, language solutions are second to none when it comes to meeting the needs of community members from diverse language backgrounds. Whether entering a hospital waiting room or standing in line at the immigration office, every person deserves the best service possible, including language support.
The benefits of partnering with a language service provider (LSP) as you build your procurement plan are twofold. Not only can you improve satisfaction ratings among all community members, but organizations can also boost their ROI as they build trust and boost retention rates. In this blog post, we’ll explain how you can lower implementation and delivery costs, maintain regulatory compliance, and streamline your processes by centralizing your language solutions with a full-service provider.
ROI and Customer Experience
Every business, healthcare organization, or government agency wants to see the people they serve go home happy. Improving the experience for culturally and linguistically diverse customers, businesses, agencies, and organizations opens up opportunities for long-term ROI within diverse markets.
In healthcare settings, language solutions—as opposed to services—accompany limited English proficiency (LEP) patients throughout their health journey and improve health literacy rates. Over time, these translation and interpretation efforts lower patient readmission rates, as well as reduce noncompliance penalties and costly reimbursements for hospitals. The benefits of full-suite language solutions extend to over-the-phone interpretation (OPI) support, such as Direct Connect and Community Connect to address common patient questions about scheduling and billing.
Government agencies respond to hundreds of questions each day, from immigration and security to housing and veterans affairs. These organizations must be ready to interact around a variety of needs with both English and non-English speakers alike. As an agency, you’ll want to contract with an LSP who works directly with subject matter expert (SME) interpreters in the field to ensure the language solutions you provide are accurate and succinct.
Cost-Effectiveness and Language Accuracy
Language access plans provide comprehensive solutions to complex problems so you can maximize your budget while serving your customers better.
Some LSPs offer volume discounts on a multi-year contract or multi-vendor strategy to keep costs low. In the case of healthcare, you can maximize savings and efficiencies by combining purchasing volume and then using that to negotiate discounts with manufacturers and other vendors. On the translation side, streamlined multimedia, marketing, and eLearning materials offer long-term value without compromising quality.
In the case of healthcare organizations and government agencies, in particular, implementing language access solutions payout in dividends over time. By leveraging technology such as AI, both healthcare and government organizations can drastically reduce their spending and increase their savings. For example, we helped one Fortune 500 payer reduced medical claims translation costs by 30 percent with the help of AI.
When you partner with an LSP, your organization receives customized language solutions with quick turnaround times and opportunities for return on investment.
Regulatory Compliance and Shifting Linguistic Demographics
Health organizations and government agencies are now being pushed, harder than ever before, to address recent shifts in language access regulations. On the surface, meeting these requirements will improve outcomes and lift satisfaction rates. In the grand scheme of things, these concerted efforts will target known disparities amongst cultural and linguistic minorities and actively work to bridge the gap.
In the healthcare industry, LSPs help navigate state and federal regulations including HITRUST, HIPAA, and PCI. When it comes to government agencies, however, they provide federally mandated language access plans for LSPs to reference, including the Department of Education, Department of Justice, and Department of Transportation.
Although these regulations improve access to equitable care and address underfunded and underserved communities through ACA federal mandates and the PRO Act, they also mitigate and concentrate the compliance risks organizations of any size must contend with.
ULG’s Commitment to Dynamic Translation and Interpretation Solutions
Make translation and interpretation a priority this year as you craft a procurement plan that maximizes your organization’s value and centralizes your customer support services.
Still unsure which LSP is right for you? ULG has the proven industry experience to collaborate with you and customize your language solution.
ULG provides comprehensive interpretation and translation solutions in both the government and healthcare sectors. Thanks to our specialization in industries such as population health, compliance, cultural and linguistic sensitive care, and NCQA Multicultural Health Care or Language Access Programs, we can provide the support you need. Our industry-leading technology supports our expert linguists and SME specialists, while our Octave technology suite offers API features and is a fully SSL- and GDPR-compliant tool to provide automated solutions.
Learn more about the intersection of ROI and quality translation and interpretation solutions by downloading ULG’s e-book, Guide to Developing a Language Access Plan.
