Member Languages and Interpreters

Serving Members Better by Speaking Their Language

Treating the whole patient – not only their conditions – is a major component of delivering quality healthcare. SilverSummit HealthPlan provides information and tools to help make that possible.

Member Demographics And Our Members

29.52% of Nevada households reported a language other than English, according to U.S. Census Bureau (2021). The census data align with the Resource for Entities Covered by Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act Estimates for Nevada of the top 15 languages spoken by individuals with LEP used to determine threshold languages for translation.

Rank	Language	Estimate
1	Spanish	229,155
2	Tagalog	21,723
3	Chinese	16,103
4	Korean	6,342
5	Vietnamese	5,068
6	Amharic	3,915
7	Thai	3,348
8	Japanese	2,445
9	Arabic	1,945
10	Russian	1,757
11	French	1,734
12	Persian	1,344
13	Samoan	1,315
14	German	1,156
15	Ilocano	795

SilverSummit Healthplan uses this information to implement the tagline requirement at § 92.8(d)(1)-(2) of the Section 1557 rule (45 C.F.R. pt.92) for threshold languages. Notification of language assistance in the HHS Office of Civil Rights list of Top 15 languages is provided upon enrollment and each Spring to all members per section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Encourage your patients to self-report race, ethnicity, and preferred language when possible.

This helps you provide better whole person care, as well as providing valuable insight that can lead to identification and reduction of health disparities within our served populations.

To proactively meet member needs for language service requests, as well as to identify emerging needs based on community demographics, the health plan collects the language characteristics of the member population on an annual basis. The two tables below show the languages reported and the top languages for which an interpreter is requested.

Table 3. Top 10 languages reported by membership

	Membership 2022		Membership 2023
Reported Race and Ethnicity	f	%	f	%
English	121,573	87.82%	113,395	87.18%
Spanish	16,208	11.71%	16,100	12.38%
Chinese	224	0.16%	194	0.15%
Lao	147	0.11%	125	0.10%
Vietnamese	100	0.07%	94	0.07%
Tagalog	57	0.04%	53	0.04%
Russian	46	0.03%	45	0.03%
French	35	0.03%	36	0.03%
Portuguese	24	0.02%	25	0.02%
Central Khmer	4	0.00%	4	0.00%

Table 4. Top 15 languages for interpreter requests

	Requests 2022		Requests 2023
Reported Race and Ethnicity	f	%	f	%
Spanish	7,295	94.2%	7,613	92.4%
Mandarin	171	2.2%	183	2.2%
Arabic	78	1.0%	92	1.1%
Farsi (Persian)	28	0.4%	76	0.9%
Amharic	8	0.1%	38	0.5%
Russian	9	0.1%	29	0.4%
Armenian	17	0.2%	22	0.3%
Vietnamese	22	0.3%	19	0.2%
Cantonese	11	0.1%	17	0.2%
Korean	7	0.1%	14	0.2%
Pashto (Afghanistan)	6	0.1%	13	0.2%
Sudanese Arabic	28	0.4%	12	0.1%
Haitian Creole	0	0.0%	10	0.1%
Lao	0	0.0%	9	0.1%
Serbian	7	0.1%	9	0.1%

Working With Interpreters

Translation/interpretation services are available to assist members with essential communications with the health plan in the delivery of its services. We have arrangements to provide both foreign language and
sign language interpretation.

Please call to inquire about these services.

SilverSummit HealthPlan is committed to ensuring that members have meaningful access to services, programs, and activities including members who may be limited in their English language proficiency.

SilverSummit HealthPlan offers telephone, face to face, and video face-to-face interpretation options. Information regarding interpreter assistance is available by contacting the Health Plan at 1.844.366.2880 . For face-to-face requests, please make the request in advance of the appointment with as much notice as possible. At a minimum, the request should be 5 days out from the appointment to allow time for the vendors to meet the need. When calling, the following information is required:

Member name;
Member ID number;
Appointment date and time
Type of interpretation needed;
Language requested.

SilverSummit HealthPlan has customer service representatives, at 1.844.366.2880, who are available to speak to members/family members in their preferred language or will conference in an interpreter. The Provider Services Call Center, at 1.844.366.2880, also has the ability to conference in an interpreter, as needed.

Not sure of your patient’s language? Go to our website and click on “Language Assistance” in the footer at the bottom of the page and have the member point to their language. If it’s not listed, you can work with the interpreter service to identify the right language.

Using the speakerphone function is recommended for communication efficiency between you, your patient and the interpreter.

Providers must ensure that bilingual staff who act as interpreters are qualified and meet the quality standards, which includes documentation that the staff member’s proficiency was assessed.

A Provider shall NOT require an individual with limited English proficiency to provide their own interpreter or rely on an adult or child accompanying an individual with limited English proficiency to interpret or facilitate communication. In addition, a Provider shall NOT rely on staff other than qualified bilingual/multilingual staff to communicate directly with individuals with limited English proficiency. Exceptions to these
expectations include:

In an emergency involving an imminent threat to the safety or welfare of an individual or the public where there is no qualified interpreter for the individual with limited English proficiency immediately available.
Where the individual with limited English proficiency specifically requests that the accompanying adult interpret or facilitate communication, the accompanying adult agrees to provide such assistance, and reliance on that adult for such assistance is appropriate under the circumstances for minimal needs.

If an interpreter is offered and the patient declines, the provider should document this in the medical record.

For additional details, please refer to the Provider Manual https://www.silversummithealthplan.com/providers/resources/provider-manuals.html