(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES – California health care agencies are on the move after University of California at Los Angeles public health researchers released a study last week revealing that more than 1 million adults in California face restricted health care access because they do not speak English proficiently.

The study by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research disclosed that those with limited English proficiency are more likely to have problems accessing health care services, and health care providers — whether public or commercial — are not doing enough to ensure quality treatment.

For state agencies, the news underlines the importance of certain changes already being made.

The Department of Managed Health Care is currently putting together a set of standards for language service access and is also working to get private health care providers on par with their public school counterparts.

More than 300,000 Californians enrolled in commercial Health Maintenance Organization plans report having trouble understanding their physicians, and 5 percent of these individuals say they were not able to find translators to help them, according to the study.

“There is not a lot of information about language services. … We were able to make comparisons across HMOs. That’s what is unique,” said Gerald Kominski, associate director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the lead author of the study.

Previous studies regarding the language barrier did not ask respondents about their specific health care providers and the type of service they received, Kominski added.

The UCLA policy brief has provided information for the California Department of Managed Health Care, the California Office of the Patient Advocate and state legislators, which reinforces the need to address issues associated with the language barrier.

“We know that language barriers affect quality. What we didn’t know was exactly how many enrollees we’re talking about,” said Ed Mendoza, acting director of the California Office of the Patient Advocate.

Understanding one’s health care plan and the complex issues surrounding diagnoses and treatment can be difficult even for those proficient in English, “so you can imagine how much more difficult it is for those who have limited English proficiency,” Mendoza added.

The different types of problems limited English-speaking HMO enrollees run into include miscommunication with their physician and an inability to efficiently deal with their health care providers.

In fact, one study found that over 25 percent of non-English-speaking patients could not understand their prescription instructions, according to the policy brief.

The study also found that public Medi-Cal and Healthy Families plans have for the most part done a better job of allocating language services to members with limited English proficiency.

The immediate goal of state agencies and legislators is to regulate commercial HMO plans to mimic their public counterparts in language service access, public health officials said.

State agencies are already on their way to making improvements to the system, and the study has worked to emphasize the needs for such changes, Kominski said.

The Department of Managed Health Care, responsible for managing HMOs, is in the process of regulating the standards concerning language access for commercial plans.

In addition, state legislators are considering setting up a task force to find out how health care providers can be reimbursed for providing language services to their subscribers, Mendoza said.

In addition to the need for an increase in the number of translators and interpretation services, solutions include offering written and verbal information about various HMO plans and medications.

Spanish and Chinese are the most predominant languages spoken in California other than English, and Mendoza said he would like to see these and about 12 to 14 other languages covered.

Ninety-three percent of health care plans report having a Spanish-speaking interpreter available during business hours, the UCLA study found.

“Now that we have a better idea of how many enrollees need language services, we’d like to see regulations adopted,” Mendoza said.

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