FAQ and Factsheets: New York Immigration Coalition

NYIC is pleased to share the final installment of translations of the Know Your Rights to Hospital Language Assistance and Know Your Rights to Hospital Financial Assistance one-pagers.

You will find versions in: Arabic; Bengali; Chinese; English; French; Haitian-Creole; Korean; Russian; Serbo-Croatian; Spanish; and Urdu.

As of January 1, 2007, all private and public hospitals throughout New York State are required to provide financial assistance to patients who use any of the hospital’s services. The new law is intended to improve New Yorkers’ access to health care and protect consumers from unfair hospital billing and collections practices. Anyone, regardless of immigration status, has a right to apply for financial assistance. Please see the Financial Assistance one-pager for more information.

On September 13, 2006, new communication assistance regulations went into effect for all private and public hospitals throughout New York State. The new rules are intended to improve your access to health care and protect you from medical harm from communication problems in hospitals. Anyone, regardless of immigration status, whose ability to communicate in English is limited, or is hearing- or vision-impaired, has a right to free communication assistance. Please see the Language Access one-pager for more information.