Bill > S06288

This bill requires general hospitals in New York to establish a comprehensive language assistance program designed to ensure meaningful access to medical services for patients who need language support. The program must include several key components: designating a language assistance coordinator, developing policies to identify patients needing language services, creating materials that explain how to access free language assistance, providing ongoing staff training about culturally competent service delivery, displaying signage about available language services, documenting patients' language preferences, and managing a resource of skilled interpreters. The bill specifically prohibits using family members or untrained personnel as interpreters except under strict conditions, such as patient agreement and when professional interpreters are unavailable. Hospitals must also conduct annual needs assessments using census and administrative data to identify linguistic groups comprising more than 1% of their service area population and provide translated materials accordingly. Additionally, the bill mandates reasonable accommodations for communication assistance for patients with mental and developmental disabilities, ensuring that interpreters or communication specialists are available within a reasonable timeframe. The language assistance program aims to improve healthcare access and communication for patients with limited English proficiency or communication challenges.

Health and Social Services

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S6288