Interpreting for California’s Insured Deaf or Hard of Hearing Population

Abstract

Deaf or hard of hearing (DHOH) people experience significant health disparities in the United States; signed language interpretation services may increase their access to health care via health insurance plans. The authors’ objective is to describe signed language interpretation (SLI) services provided by California’s health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to their DHOH members. They conducted a descriptive review of an annual state-administered survey of California HMOs from 2003 through 2008 via retrospective analysis of annual or biennial survey responses to questions regarding SLI services and DHOH members. From 2003 through 2008, California HMOs increased efforts to inform DHOH members of SLI services while using more formal methods to assess the quality of those services. DHOH members were increasingly discouraged from using family members for medical SLI. California’s HMOs have improved efforts to promote and evaluate SLI services for the DHOH community.