As a business owner responsible to grow my business and gain new clients, I spend a lot of time discovering my potential clients needs and concerns. After many years of conversations with adjusters, below are the top five Frustrations expressed about interpreters.
- Miscommunications and lawsuits. Often, miscommunication directly leads the claimant to seek legal advice. The patient swears the doctor was informed, while the doctor claims nothing was stated. This calls into question the accuracy of the interpreter.
- Missed appointments. Late and no-show interpreters can be frustrating and are costly. Appointment rescheduling delays the case. Meanwhile cancellation fees are incurred from the healthcare provider, the case manager, and the transport.
- Lack of trust. Some claimants believe that the insurance company is out to get them. This kind of mistrust multiplies when there is a language barrier.
- Inappropriate coaching of claimants. It’s customary in the interpreting profession for agencies to use unqualified bilingual people instead of certified or qualified professional interpreters. This leads untrained individuals to coach the patient, giving medical or legal advice they are not qualified to give. This is an egregious breach of ethics.
- Customer service problems. There is nothing more annoying than to call and ask a simple question about the case and wait what seems like forever for an answer.
Many of these common problems have an easy fix. Professional certified interpreters, are skilled in terminology and knowledgeable in ethics.
