A New Way to Schedule and Pay for Interpreter Services
Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is creating a new online system. The system will schedule and pay for Certified and/or Qualified Health Care Interpreter (HCI) services for Oregon Health Plan (OHP) members. This system will first be available for fee-for-service (FFS or "open card") members, and later for coordinated care organization (CCO) members.
Senate Bill 1578 (2024) requires OHA to create a system that:
- Lists all Certified and/or Qualified HCIs in Oregon and when they are available.
- Gives health care providers a way to schedule interpreters for their patients.
The bill also directs OHA to:
- Pay HCIs directly.
- Engage an Oregon nonprofit to help with HCI training, outreach and availability.
This page shares OHA's work toward meeting these requirements.
We Want to Hear from You
Do you have ideas or feedback to make the portal successful? OHA wants to hear from HCIs, language services companies, CCOs, health care providers and community advocates. Please use our Portal User Feedback Form to share your ideas.
Senate Bill 1578 Roadmap
OHA is still in the planning phase and cannot give exact dates. This timeline is an estimate only and could change. Once OHA has contracts, the companies involved will make their own timelines for their work. Because the project involves many complex systems, the portal will be ready no sooner than 2027.
Frequently Asked Questions
OHA hired 4 full time staff dedicated to this project. We are working hard to get it up and running as soon as possible. There are several steps to this project that are complex and will take longer than originally thought. For instance, the procurement and oversight process for IT-related contracts takes at least 18 months.
We can't make any guarantees, but we are hoping to have the Portal open for FFS members in 2027 and then expand for CCO participation later that year.
Only Health Care Interpreters that are registered as either Qualified and/or Certified through OHA will be eligible to particpate in the Portal.
Providers serving Medicaid members are the general audience. At first it will only be available for provider offices scheduling for fee-for-service (FFS) members. The Portal will also ultimately be available to schedule appointments for CCO members as well. The Portal will bill Medicaid or the appropriate CCOs.
Important note: HCI appointments scheduled through the Portal for FFS members will be paid for by Medicaid, so Portal use will likely be limited to FFS appointments for which a bundled payment or encounter rate does not already include payment for interpreter services. That means that some clinics or services (like inpatient hospitalization, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and long-term care facilities) will be exempt from using the Portal because they are paid in a different way.
We are still working on determining how to best support the use of staff interpreters. The HCI Scheduling Portal may not be relevant to HCI needs that can be accommodated in-house. Check back here later for updates!
The Portal will produce and send tailored payment instructions to the appropriate payer (Medicaid or CCO). We aim to develop this process in a way that will reduce the administrative burden on Health Care Interpreters.
After piloting the program for FFS, the Portal will open to schedule appointments for CCO members as well and will send billing instructions to the CCO for payment.
As long as the scheduling was first attempted through the Portal, and the Portal was unable to fill the need, the Portal will document that the provider met the requirement to make a "good faith effort" to schedule a Certified or Qualified HCI. The Portal may then direct the provider to an alternative language services company to fill the request. Providers are also welcome to use their own contracted language services company for these "spillway" appointments when needed.
This Portal should work for both prescheduled and on-demand appointments. We recognize that we may not have capacity to fill all on-demand needs with Qualified and/or Certified Health Care Interpreters from the Portal, but this function will be available.
SB 1578 requires OHA to begin paying interpreters directly. The pay structure is not yet determined and will be negotiated between OHA and Oregon's Health Care Interpreter Union.
When the HCI Union negotiates with OHA they have the option to negotiate different rates depending on language, region, and other factors. We will update this page with more information after these HCI rate negotiations are finalized.
For OHA to pay HCIs directly, we need to make changes to OHA's MMIS system, which produces payments for Medicaid services. This task involves complex systems, integrating both IT and finance processes.
Both these departments are aware of this project, participating in its development, and embarking on the steps needed for this system change. The timeline for this change will depend on many things including how complex the negotiated rate structure will be, what policies need to be created, what billing codes must be created, and the process of HCIs getting enrolled into the MMIS system.
We are looking for ways to minimize this timeline, and where we can start some processes early to get a head start where possible.
The Department of Administrative Services (DAS) is communicating with the HCI Union to plan for rate negotiation and collective bargaining. We will update this page with more information when it becomes available.
At first, the Portal will only be open to FFS members, which is approximately 8% of Medicaid members. We are looking at ways to increase adoption of the Portal by CCOs in order to have greater impact and utility.
We want HCIs to be adequately compensated for their time and expertise. Details like payments for cancellations will be part of the pay rate negotiations with the HCI Union.
Yes! We will be holding additional input sessions for health care interpreters, provider offices, and CCOs. If you are interested in submitting ideas or participating in other ways, please use this online form to let us know.