Category Archives: Benefits

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Interpreter Services

Launch of Interpreter System Delayed

The launch of the planned interpreter system for scheduling services is being delayed by the Department of Labor and Industries (DLI).

DLI is currently reassessing their implementation timeline for the new interpreter scheduling system, InterpreterWorks.  This reassessment includes the following:

  • Review of current work done to build this system.
  • Incorporating feedback of end-users received during test-sessions.
  • Clarifying registration process for both interpreters and providers.
  • Determine a go-live date.

The go-live date is expected to be announced sometime this spring, with at least 30 days advance notice. To ensure a smooth transition, DLI will allow current schedulers to continue operating for a limited amount of time. In the meantime, users are recommended to continue to use their current interpreter system process.

Get More Info, and Give DLI Your Opinion

DLI offers answers to the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) and invites you to learn more.  DLI also encourage both providers and interpreters to register for the new online appointment scheduling system through interpretingWorks. 

Please contact DLI directly at interpretation@Lni.wa.gov with any questions or concerns. Voicing your opinion now may help everyone involved in the provision of interpreter services to claimants.

De-activating Interpreter Agency Accounts

To comply with the new law, all interpreter agency accounts, and interpreters doing business with DLI under those agency group accounts, will be de-activated in early 2021. Interpreters who want to continue providing services to injured workers and victims of crime may enroll with interpretingWorks or maintain an independent interpreter provider account at DLI. Agencies have one year to bill DLI for services provided prior to this cut-off date. 

What Will Happen to Independent Interpreters?

There will be limited opportunities for independent interpreters to provide services for DLI appointments after the interpretingWorks roll-out. Their services are only approved for use in on-demand appointments that do not have a pre-scheduled time, such as emergency, urgent care, and walk-in appointments.

In very rare cases, DLI may approve a claimant’s request to work with a consistent, independent interpreter. These requests will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

What About the Claimant’s Needs?

A lack of choice in which interpreter an injured worker chooses to work with while going through the process of medical and vocational services under a claim is significant. It is not like requesting a driver through a ride-share app, but that is how the system seems to treat it, at least at first glance.

There may be more bumps in the road on this journey towards implementation of the new interpreter system. Claimants should make their opinions and needs known to DLI along the way.

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Interpreter Services

New Interpreter Scheduling System

This fall, the Department of Labor and Industries (DLI) will launch a new spoken language interpreter scheduling system. After a competitive process, interpretingWorks was selected to implement and administer this new system (reference RFP #4253). The goal is to comply with a new law (RCW 39.26.300) to improve meaningful access to spoken language interpreter services.

You can find more information in DLI’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Please contact DLI directly at interpretation@Lni.wa.gov with any questions or concerns.

Online Platform: Optimized for Mobile Devices and PCs

With the new system, health care providers and vocational counselors will arrange for interpreters through an online scheduling system. It is optimized for mobile and PC access through any internet browser and provides built-in quality assurance and reporting for the program. Overall, this makes it easier to do business with DLI when requesting interpreters. The new system also implements quality measures that help ensure consistent adherence to the Washington State interpreter Code of Ethics (WAC 388-03-050).

For providers, it’s an easy-to-use, one-stop-shop to request interpreter services, offering seamless, electronic check-in/-out and sign-off for completed interpreting encounters.

For interpreters, it’s a real-time listing of available interpreting jobs located close by, accessible on mobile devices or a home PC. Interpreters can track job assignments, and do seamless, check-in/-out at appointment locations by scanning a QR-code. It also syncs job assignments with calendars and provides electronic invoicing for prompt payment.

DLI supports the health and safety of the state’s workforce through an array of procured services, including interpreter services. DLI provides about 17,000 spoken language interpreter encounters per month. DLI’s mission is to keep people safe and working by ensuring their access to services and care, whether or not they speak English.

For Interpreters: Sign up Now

Interpreters can sign up now through the interpretingWorks website by completing an online enrollment form. No paperwork is necessary. Once submitted, an interpretingWorks’ staff member will reach out to the interpreter to complete the enrollment process. The entire process only takes two to three business days to complete.

It’s important to note a requirement that’s NEW to the process, is that interpreters will need National Provider Identification (NPI) number. NPIs are unique, 10-digit numbers used for identifying specific providers. NPIs are widely used by medical providers nationwide.

If you need an NPI number, go to The National Provider Identifier Standard section of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website. There is NO cost to sign up. 

For Providers:  Pre-enroll Now

Providers can pre-enroll now through the interpretingWorks vendor portal so their account is ready when the system is live in Fall 2020. 

De-activating Interpreter Agency Accounts

To comply with the new law, all interpreter agency accounts, and interpreters doing business with DLI under those agency group accounts, will be de-activated in early 2021. Interpreters who want to continue providing services to injured workers and victims of crime may enroll with interpretingWorks or maintain an independent interpreter provider account at DLI. Agencies have one year to bill DLI for services provided prior to this cut-off date. 

What Will Happen to Independent Interpreters?

There will be limited opportunities for independent interpreters to provide services for DLI appointments after the interpretingWorks roll-out. Their services are only approved for use in on-demand appointments that do not have a pre-scheduled time, such as emergency, urgent care, and walk-in appointments.

Providers have the option of using interpretingWorks, as well as Lionbridge and Language Link, DLI’s other contracted vendors. Independent interpreters may be used but only to meet on-demand needs (emergency, walk-in, etc..).

Interpreters are strongly encouraged to enroll in the interpretingWorks scheduling system by DLI.

What About the Claimant’s Needs?

We have requested additional input from DLI to clarify whether injured workers will have any say in which interpreter will be assigned to their appointments with their providers. It is not clear that an injured worker can expect to have the same interpreter at all of their appointments, let alone the interpreter of their choosing.

A lack of choice in which interpreter an injured worker chooses to work with while going through the process of medical and vocational services under a claim is significant. It is not like requesting a driver through a ride-share app, but that is how the system seems to treat it, at least at first glance.

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Benefits, Disability

Groundwater Contamination In Bethpage A Possible Source Of Disability Claims

N.Y. Assemblyman Anthony Saladino (left) and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) display a map of the spread of a plume of toxic chemicals from Bethpage to Massapequa.

Today’s post comes from guest author Catherine Stanton, from Pasternack Tilker Ziegler Walsh Stanton & Romano.

Last year news broke that New York was going to test water on Long Island for contamination from toxic groundwater near the old Grumman site in Bethpage, which previously housed the U.S. Navy. Decades ago it was determined that the site was toxic and the Navy and Grumman had spent millions of dollars to clean it up, but despite this, fears remained that there was some contamination that may have seeped from the site into the groundwater.

Governor Cuomo subsequently announced that the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) was going to seek financial compensation for damages to groundwater resources related to that contamination. As a transplanted Queens’s native who now lives in Bethpage, the news was troubling to say the least, but it is just one of many examples of a contaminated water supply. The City of Flint, Michigan, made headlines during the last couple of years after dangerous levels of lead were found in the water. The resulting cover-up resulted in a number of lawsuits and criminal indictments.

If these types of examples are startling, then this one will really get to you. We are in the midst of a heartbreaking contamination event involving our service men and women and their families at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. From the 1950s through the 1980s, people living or working at the U.S. Marine Corps base there were potentially exposed to drinking water contaminated with industrial solvents, benzene, and other chemicals. It is estimated that almost one million people were exposed to contaminated water during this time.

The Veterans Administration (VA) has established a presumptive service connection for veterans, reservists, and National Guard members exposed to contaminants in the water supply at Camp Lejeune from August 1, 1953 through December 31, 1987, who later developed one of the following eight diseases:  adult leukemia, aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, multiple myeloma, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, or Parkinson’s disease. These conditions are the only ones for which there is sufficient scientific and medical evidence to support the creation of presumptions. However, the VA will continue to review relevant information as it becomes available.  The presumptive service connection means that all Lejeune veterans with one of the eight conditions listed above will not have to provide documentation proving their conditions were caused by the tainted water.

President Barack Obama approved a $2.2 billion compensation program to pay disability compensation benefits. Disability Compensation is a tax free monetary benefit paid to veterans with disabilities that are the result of a disease or injury incurred or aggravated during active military service. Compensation also may be paid for post-service disabilities that are considered related or secondary to disabilities occurring in service, and for disabilities presumed to be related to circumstances of military service, even though they may arise after service. As many of these conditions develop over time, the veteran may no longer be on active duty. This will not disqualify a claim for compensation. If you or a family member were at Camp Lejeune, it is imperative that you know your rights. They are complicated and often misunderstood, thereby leading our veterans to miss out on benefits they are more than entitled to and definitely deserve. We are awed by our veterans’ commitment to this country and we thank them for their service.

 

Catherine M. Stanton is a senior partner in the law firm of Pasternack Tilker Ziegler Walsh Stanton & Romano, LLP. She focuses on the area of Workers’ Compensation, having helped thousands of injured workers navigate a highly complex system and obtain all the benefits to which they were entitled. Ms. Stanton has been honored as a New York Super Lawyer, is the past president of the New York Workers’ Compensation Bar Association, the immediate past president of the Workers’ Injury Law and Advocacy Group, and is an officer in several organizations dedicated to injured workers and their families. She can be reached at 800.692.3717.