CLAS Education and Training
The organization supports practitioners in providing competent language services, including:
-
Sharing eligible individual data on language needs with practitioners. The Cooperative shares individual data on language needs with practitioners through our provider portal and via telephone during eligibility verification.
-
Organization and service area population data on language needs. Annually the Cooperative assesses language needs of our members to identify languages spoken and thresholds languages of our population. The languages listed below are spoken by 1 percent of the population or 200 eligible members, whichever is less. The Cooperative does not currently have any languages identified as threshold languages, which are languages spoken by 5 percent of the population or by 1,000 eligible members, whichever is less. See table below for 2021 breakdown of the Cooperative’s Medicaid and Commercial population by primary language spoken.
|
|
Medicaid
|
Commerical
|
|
English
|
34.15%
|
26.84%
|
|
Spanish
|
1.82%
|
NA
|
|
Hmong
|
1.01%
|
NA
|
|
Somali
|
0.39%
|
NA
|
*Languages spoken are not required to be reported to the Cooperative. Table is not a comprehensive view of all members.
Census data provided by the United States Census Bureau can be found via the link below which provides practitioners with service area data for each county the Cooperative serves.
U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Wisconsin; United States
-
Providing practitioners with language assistance resources. Language assistance resources are provided by Wisconsin Department of Health Services and can be found at the link below. Limited English Proficiency Resources | Wisconsin Department of Health Services
-
The Cooperative provides both In-person and telephone interpretation services that are available to both practitioners and members.
-
Group Health Cooperative of Eau Claire is contracted with Language Line if qualified, bilingual staff are not available in the needed language. Language Line provides live interpreter or bilingual services for any interaction with members and practitioners during normal business hours upon request via telephone.
-
The Cooperative accommodates ASL or language needs by corresponding in writing with the practitioner or member.
-
For onsite needs, the Cooperative maintains, at the front desk, informational material in 17 languages (plus ASL) informing participants of their right to interpretation services and which requests they point to the needed language.
-
If live, in-person interpreter services are needed, the Cooperative will consult resources provided by DHS.
-
Offering training to practitioners on the provision of language services
-
The Cooperative utilizes the Wisconsin department of Health Services limited English proficiency, LEP, resources to assist practitioners with responding to LEP members and written LEP communications. The webpage below also provides resources for practitioners such as ISpeak Cards and Language posters to assist in interacting with LEP members during in-person visits. Information is also available regarding accessing interpreter services and training necessary to become a medical interpreter. Limited English Proficiency Resources | Wisconsin Department of Health Services
-
The Cooperative also makes our internal language assistance resource available to all members and practitioners via the webpage. Language Assistance
The organization helps provide training for health care providers in order to improve the health care of individuals and populations.
-
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the lead Federal agency charged with improving the safety and quality of America's health care system. AHRQ develops the knowledge, tools, and data needed to improve the health care system and help Americans, health care professionals, and policymakers make informed health decisions.
-
Think Cultural Health
This website features information, continuing education opportunities, resources, and more for health and health care professionals to learn about culturally and linguistically appropriate services, or CLAS.