New Trump rule on medical interpreters could leave immigrants behind

WASHINGTON — Ed Zuroweste, a family practitioner in south central Pennsylvania, got a call a couple of years ago from a nearby hospital in Chambersburg. A restaurant worker, newly arrived from Guatemala, had staggered into the emergency room a few days before with severe shortness of breath and coughing up blood.

Using as a translator the man’s co-worker, a Mexican national with limited English himself, the staff took a medical history. They ruled out tuberculosis because the Guatemalan said he had not had contact with anyone with the infection. They treated him for pneumonia and released him a couple of days later.

Then the results came back from the specimen they had cultured. The Guatemalan had tuberculosis after all.

Zuroweste received the call because he is a tuberculosis expert who consults with the state health department on the infectious disease. Fluent in Spanish, Zuroweste ended up contacting the Guatemalan and successfully treating him.

The man told Zuroweste that back home he had been exposed to a friend and a brother who each had the disease. He hadn’t wanted to admit that in front of his co-worker, whom he barely knew, because of the stigma associated with tuberculosis. “I hope I don’t die of TB,” he told Zuroweste. He didn’t.

To the doctor, the incident points to the need for professional medical translation services for patients with limited English proficiency, which is guaranteed in federal law but often ignored, immigrant advocates say. Without translation services, Zuroweste said, there are likely to be misunderstandings that result in medical mishaps, mistreatment and avoidable health care costs.

Nevertheless, the Trump administration intends to relax an Obama-era federal rule requiring that medical providers let patients know about their right to language interpretation services — and for people with disabilities, communication assistance such as qualified sign language interpreters or written information in alternative formats for the visually impaired. The administration insists that the current requirements are onerous and costly for providers.

The change could have far-reaching effects: More than 27 million U.S. residents speak English less than “very well” or not at all, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

(Tribune News Service)