Language Solutions Inc. St. Louis releases Study on Spanish Healthcare Terminology

ST. LOUIS - July 22, 2016 - PRLog -- Language Solutions Inc. (LSI) has released a white paper on Spanish Healthcare Terminology intended for professionals in the healthcare communication industry, translation industry and for benefit consultants. In preparation of the 2017 Open Enrollment season, LSI looked at the state of healthcare terminology for the Hispanic population. In researching 6 major organizations, both government and private, it can be confirmed that Healthcare Terminology is vastly complex and not always very consistent among different government and private organizations. This paper highlights the issues in healthcare terminology, what it means for the industry and what could be done to improve.

Conclusion from this study

Translating healthcare communications in the United States has been done in a very decentralized way. In English, it seems at least that there is some coordination on healthcare insurance terminology as the industry has somewhat standardized the nomenclature around insurance language. The development of Spanish Healthcare Terminology in the United States has been challenged by the following developments:

· Isolated efforts to translate key healthcare terms have introduced variability in terminology, creating a history of terminology that was never based on any set of standards.

· Little evidence that the main organizations in healthcare coordinate the development of these Spanish translations over time, causing continued variability in some of the even the most basic healthcare terms, program names and insurance terminology.

· Regional preferences in Spanish tend to show in plans where demographics in a particular State or by a particular translator tends to follow a particular market preference and may not always be universally applicable or even appropriate.

· Accessibility of information and the format in which it is presented is sporadic, decentralized and not very useful to create consistent translations in a productive way. This hinders healthcare professionals to speak in one voice amidst the noise of inconsistent terminology. It also hinders translation professionals to be always informed about the terminology used without any productivity tools (Translation Memory and Termbases) to guide their knowledge.

These issues in inconsistent terminology have not gone unnoticed as evidenced by this article by the National Health Law Program (http://www.healthlaw.org/issues/medicaid/health-reform-an...), which suggests that the US Department of Health and Human Services should take the lead into providing a standardized glossary.

But as LSI discovered in compiling our own standardized glossary for the healthcare insurance industry, none of the major health organizations surveyed have either a complete or always accurate account of the healthcare terminology in Spanish. Each organization tends to specialize in certain healthcare terminology. There IS overlap but they each have their own focus i.e. Aflac on supplemental insurance, CMS on Medicaid/Medicare, etc

LSI's efforts in creating a complete English to Spanish glossary from terms provided by the major organizations in healthcare have been an investment on our part to be consistent in work that LSI provides in healthcare translations. The end goal is to ensure comprehension by the end user and to decrease confusion. It is an asset that LSI shares with translators and with clients. However, as long as healthcare translation is evolving in a decentralized way, these glossaries will need to be tested against the terms used in the field, in plan documents, by State exchanges, navigators, brokers, and healthcare providers and of course the second language plan participant.

What does this mean for Open Enrollment?

Open Enrollment is a time for families to make important decisions on their healthcare and financial outlook for the rest of the year. Terminology in English is vast and can already be very confusing. Plan members need to understand how these variables impact their financial decision making and variability can break down the decision process. Attention needs to be brought to consistency of terminology and supplementing this with additional information to understand each concept. Accuracy and consistency will need to be balanced and variability needs to be addressed in Open Enrollment documents to ensure readers that they are comparing apples to apples.

It is important for health plan providers and translation companies to keep track of healthcare terminology and have access to this information to take out unnecessary variability and create a better health experience for the Hispanic population.

Our Final Recommendations

· For any organization that publishes a glossary, LSI recommends that to publish it online in a downloadable format in which it can be accessed and used. A PDF is not a usable format to be able to use in technology (Translation service providers and translators can then convert this to a glossary to be used in Translation Memory). Consider Excel, a Word table, etc.

· Encourage health plans and others to use Language Service Providers or professional translators that are proficient in Translation Memory and have access to these glossaries and published translations that can be utilized. See the CMS Toolkit for using culturally and appropriate translation.

· There needs to be an organization that will reach out and collaborate with others to help standardize the terminology. LSI volunteers to be part of that organization.

· Communicate, communicate, communicate – create the awareness of the importance of standardized translations and terminology once established.

Read the full report here (http://www.langsolinc.com/healthcare-terminology-our-whit...)