Not sure how to become Section 1557 compliant? Janus Worldwide can help…

Wadii El Maroudi

Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in health programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. It builds upon several long‐standing federal civil rights laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of federal financial assistance from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin.

In May 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued the Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities Final Rule, implementing Section 1557 for health programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance from HHS. As entities participating in Medicare and Medicaid, and frequent recipients of grant funds from the Health Resources and Services Administration, all Section 330 health centers are required to comply with the final rule.

Under the final rule, oral and written language assistance services must be provided free of charge, in an accurate and timely fashion, and must protect the privacy and independence of individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP). The staff members or contract companies providing language assistance services must be “qualified.” The following chart summarizes the qualification requirements for interpreters, bilingual staff members and translators:

Oral language assistance services — Interpreter services:

1. Adhere to generally accepted interpreter ethics principles, including client confidentiality.
2. Demonstrate proficiency in speaking and understanding both spoken English and at least one other spoken language.
3. Interpret effectively, accurately, and impartially, both receptively and expressly, to and from such language(s) and English, using any necessary specialized vocabulary, terminology and phraseology.
4. Demonstrate proficiency in speaking and understanding both spoken English and at least one other spoken language, including any necessary specialized vocabulary, terminology and phraseology.
5. Communicate effectively, accurately, and impartially directly with individuals with LEP in their primary languages.

Written language assistance services — Translator services:

1. Adhere to generally accepted translator ethics principles, including client confidentiality.
2. Demonstrate proficiency in writing and understanding both written English and at least one other written non‐ English language.
3. Translate effectively, accurately, and impartially to and from such language(s) and English, using any necessary specialized vocabulary, terminology and phraseology.

Not sure how to become Section 1557 compliant? Janus Worldwide can help …

Business Development Director in the US

Wadii El Maroudi

Wadii started his journey in the Translation and Localization industry back 2005 as a Project Manager for a Language and Defense company based in Washington DC. His love for the industry helped Wadii climb the industry hierarchy from a project manager, account manager, program manager all the way to Business Development. Throughout his carrier, Wadii worked with clients varying from Government agencies, Life Science, Energy, Technology, Aerospace.