Cut could eliminate interpreters for thousands

SEATTLE — About 70,000 Washington residents who have limited English may lose access to interpreters during medical visits under a proposed budget cut.

The spending cut proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire would eliminate a state-financed program that subsidizes interpreter services to medical clinics and hospitals who serve Medicaid patients.

At about $2 million, the proposed cut is a moderate one out of the governor's emergency budget reductions, but one of the dozens needed as Gregoire and legislators grapple with a state budget that keeps falling in deeper deficits.

Lawmakers met in a special session Saturday to approve steps for trimming a $1.1 billion budget deficit through June. Another, larger deficit in the next two-year budget also awaits when lawmakers return for regular meetings in January.

The interpreter program is conducted by the Department of Social and Health Services, which had been ordered to cut $113 million from its spending, spokesman Jim Stevenson said.

Under federal law, health care providers are required to make sure their Medicaid patients are able to communicate their needs well and for years the state felt it wasn't fair to let providers carry that burden, Stevenson said.

So the state created the interpreter program, in which the state pays for the interpretation services. Stevenson said Washington is one of 13 states to have such a program.

Cutting the program would shift the cost of hiring interpreters to doctors, hospitals and clinics, or it will be another reason for health care providers to stop serving Medicaid patients, representatives for medical and interpreters services aid.

"No one here has argued it's a good idea, but it's the only way to get that big chunk of dollars (from the budget)," Stevenson said.

The impact warning from the budget writers says that cutting the program may result in "family members, including children, or other unqualified individuals" being used to relay complex medical information to patients.

Poor communication is a risk, the DSHS budget writers said, as well as an increase of emergency room visits due to lack of health care providers.

While the cut of state money is about $2 million, the annual budget for the program is around $14 million. Because it's a Medicaid program, the federal government matches 65 percent of what the state contributes.