The CDC’s Office of Health Equity (OHE) offers a Health Equity Video Series. These are free-of-charge, short, and informative videos on topics of health equity, social determinants of health, racism and health, and intersectionality.
Health Equity Guiding Principles for Inclusive Communication are intended to help public health professionals, particularly health communicators, ensure their communication products and strategies adapt to the specific cultural, linguistic, environmental, and historical situation of each population or audience of focus.
Course 1 covers the fundamentals of CLAS, including strategies for delivering patient-centered care.
Course 2 covers communication and language assistance, including how to work effectively with an interpreter.
Course 3 covers organizational CLAS-related activities, including strategic planning and community assessment.
How to access an interpreter
Steps to access services
Call 844.579.3511
Indicate language required
For Spanish, press 1
For other, press 2
Provide
Your 10-digit provider NPI number
10-digit member ID
Working with your interpreter
Note provider line OPI client ID, 707138.
Document the interpreter’s name and ID number for your records.
Brief the interpreter and provide instructions.
Considerations for your outreach
Working with an interpreter
At the beginning of the call, interpreters identify themselves by name and ID number. Note this information for reference, then tell the interpreter the nature of the call. Speak directly to the limited English proficient or deaf or hard of hearing individual, not to the interpreter, pausing at the end of a complete thought. To ensure accuracy, your interpreter may ask for clarification or repetition.
Initiating or receiving a three-way call
Use the conference feature on your phone and follow the instructions provided to connect to an interpreter. If you are initiating the call, get the interpreter on the line first, then call the limited English proficient individual. If you are receiving a call, ask the caller to hold, then conference in the interpreter.
Phone interpreting equipment
If you have interpreting equipment, use one handset to call LanguageLine and once connected to the interpreter, give the second handset to the limited English proficient individual.
LanguageLine customer service
To provide feedback, commend an interpreter, or report a service concern, visit www.languageline.com, click the Client Resources tab, scroll to Voice of Customer, and complete the form.
Service area language data
To improve culturally appropriate communication between members and providers and advance our Health Equity Strategy, Capital Blue Cross is sharing service area population data on language needs with our network practitioners.
This table contains data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Pennsylvania Languages Map1 and reflects:
The population within each county of Capital’s 21-county service area.
Number of the population who speak the top five languages2 in each county (other than English).
