A coalition of immigration and health care advocates will launch a campaign on Monday urging the D.C. government to require pharmacies to provide interpreters for customers with limited English skills, a measure that could lead city lawmakers to mandate for the first time that the private sector offer language services.
“It’s definitely a life or death thing,” said Sapna Pandya, the executive director of D.C.-based Many Languages One Voice. “90 million Americans have trouble understanding prescriptions. They are challenging to understand even if you are an English speaker.”
Under the proposal Pandya and other supporters are pressing, pharmacies that receive any kind of money from the government — including Medicare or Medicaid payments — would have to offer free interpretation services and translated medication labels in many instances…..
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