Millions of California workers speak a primary language other than English. To receive appropriate treatment and benefits in the event of an injury, those workers need to communicate accurately with physicians.

A troubling practice may be undermining those workers’ rights: the use of provisionally certified (as opposed to fully certified) language interpreters.

California workers’ comp regulations require (except in specific, limited circumstances) that a language interpreter have full credentials as a Certified Medical Interpreter (CMI) by the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters (NBCMI) to handle treatment appointments and Medical-Legal evaluations.

While pursuing full CMI credentials, language interpreters receive a provisional certification known as a “HUB-CMI” badge. The HUB-CMI badge indicates that the interpreter has completed only the initial steps toward full certification and has passed an English-language exam on the basics of the profession.

Yet, according to reports from WorkCompCentral and interpreter industry experts at slator, HUB-CMI interpreters are providing services for treatment appointments and Medical-Legal exams, despite not being properly credentialed. Further, a California interpreter service contacted daisyNews to ask us to help publicize this issue.

Inaccurate interpreter services from an under-qualified interpreter not only violate state regulations, but literal misinterpretations of an injured worker’s condition can potentially result in denial of care or benefits. Moreover, substandard interpreter services can add friction and employer costs to California claims, which already feature excessive durations and exorbitant expenses.

Provisionally Certified Interpreters: A High-Stakes Problem

Qualified interpreter services are indispensable to a fair and equitable system. When an injured worker can’t understand or be understood at an appointment or evaluation, the consequences could harm their health and/or financial future.

There are two levels of credentialing under the NBCMI:

• HUB-CMI: A preliminary credential that indicates passage of a written English-only exam on the basics of medical interpreting. Interpreters assigned a HUB-CMI credential level have two years to achieve full CMI certification in a particular language.
  
• CMI: Full certification indicating passage of rigorous written and oral exams for a specific language.

California Code of Regulations Section 9795.1.6 allows provisionally certified interpreters for treatment appointments and Medical-Legal exams only when the following conditions are true:

• The claims administrator gives prior written consent to the interpreter, or
• The injured worker speaks a language other than Spanish, Tagalog, Arabic, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, or Vietnamese

Yet, CMI-certified interpreters and administrators with the Northern California Translators Association have been sounding the alarm about interpreters with provisional HUB-CMI badges rendering services where, presumably, fully CMI-credentialed interpreters are required.

According to slator, Medical-Legal evaluators may or may not understand the potential downstream consequences of allowing a provisionally certified interpreter to take on a high-stakes evaluation. While some Qualified Medical Evaluators (QMEs) have reportedly “expressed frustration” at interpreting agencies or turned HUB-CMI interpreters away, others have (perhaps unknowingly) allowed HUB-CMI interpreters to do the job, potentially invalidating the evaluation.

The consequences of errors by HUB-CMI interpreters could fall on employers, insurers, and injured workers. With potentially thousands of dollars in treatment and disability costs on the line, systematic violations of § 9795.1.6 could come back to bite employers.

We urge QMEs and Agreed Medical Evaluators to help safeguard injured workers’ rights and to protect interpreting standards from being diluted or devalued. Unless one of the provisions of § 9795.1.6 specifically allows it for the evaluation in question, do not accept the services of HUB-CMI interpreters.

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