Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN) is urging President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to probe a rule imposed by former President Joe Biden that forces healthcare providers to cover the costs of language interpreters for patients who do not speak English, many of whom are illegal aliens.
In 2024, the Biden administration finalized a rule requiring healthcare providers to provide free language services to patients who cannot speak English.
The rule, Banks writes in a letter to HHS that was exclusively reviewed by Breitbart News, has been crushing for small, independent, and rural hospitals that do not have the massive operating budgets that larger hospitals enjoy.
“This additional restriction places a substantial and even unsustainable burden on health care providers. In-person medical interpretation services can cost anywhere from $45 to $150 per hour,” Banks writes:
In many instances, these costs exceed the reimbursement that providers receive for the underlying medical visit. As a result, providers are forced to absorb the costs. Larger hospital systems may easily bear this financial burden, but independent, rural, and smaller providers are buckling under the financial strain in Indiana and elsewhere. [Emphasis added]
Additionally, these costs may push providers that are already at risk of closure over the edge, reducing access to care in their communities.
[Emphasis added]
Banks also notes that many patients who require such language services are, in fact, illegal aliens.
“Additionally, it is important to recognize that the language assistance requirement frequently benefits illegal immigrants, who may not be eligible for public assistance in the first place,” Banks writes. “In many instances, these language assistance mandates are forcing U.S. healthcare providers to subsidize services for individuals who are in the country illegally while undermining their ability to serve Americans.”
Banks is asking HHS officials to “reexamine the legal basis for the language assistance mandate, previous administrations’ regulatory and policy interpretations, and the inability for health care providers to recoup these costs,” asking the agency to provide details on whether or not it may help hospitals recoup such costs.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected].
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