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HCIN Scheduled Appointment Center:

Terms and Conditions

 

The Health Care Interpreter Network Scheduled Appointment Center (HCIN SAC, or SAC) service is for languages of lesser diffusion, appointments that require very specific interpreter skills, or other circumstances where you want advance confirmation that the best-matched interpreter will be ready for your provider and patient. 

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The following Terms and Conditions apply:

  • The Scheduled Appointment Center is exclusively for use by language service managers (and their designees) at Health Care Interpreter Network (HCIN) member organizations, and other organizations holding current contracts signed or authorized for this purpose.

  • HCIN and its partners do not guarantee that all requested assignments will be filled.

  • Depending on the resources available, assignments may be filled by:

    • A video interpreter;

    • A telephonic interpreter;

    • An interpreter in a videoconference hosted by HCIN or its subcontractor;

    • A videoconference hosted by your organization, to which you invite the interpreter.

 

Timekeeping:

  • Scheduled appointments are billed by the minute. Timekeeping runs from the scheduled start time to the actual end time, with a 60 minute minimum charge. 

  • No-show appointments incur the minimum charge (60 minutes).

  • Late cancellations incur the minimum charge (60 minutes). For organizations that are full members of HCIN, a late cancellation is a confirmed assignment cancelled later than the same hour of the previous business day.
    For other authorized users, please refer to your contract for cancellation rules.

  • The party using the interpreter service must initiate the call (or join the conference) within 30 minutes of the scheduled start time. If the interpreter waits 30 minutes and does not receive a call or encounter a user, the interpreter will abandon the assignment and you will be charged 60 minutes of usage.

 

Rates:

  • For HCIN member organizations, most spoken languages and ASL are charged at the usual contracted rate (with 60‑minute minimum).

  • Indigenous languages of Mesoamerica and South America may incur higher per-minute rates.

  • Assignments that require a relay interpreter, such as English <> Spanish <> Zapoteco will be  billed at a higher rate.

  • Assignments that require two interpreters (e.g., lengthy ASL appointments) will be billed by the minute, per interpreter.

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Language Variants:

  • For languages with several dialects or variants, please be as specific as possible, e.g. Yemeni Arabic, Zapoteco from San Pedro Cajones, Oaxaca.

  • For indigenous languages, it is best to provide the patient's:

    • Nationality

    • State (province, department)

    • Municipality

    • Pueblo

  • In some cases we may need to set up a brief pre-assignment phone call to confirm mutual intelligibility. These calls are charged by the minute with no minimum charge.

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Protected Health Info:

  • Do not include patient name, date of birth, or other personal identifying information in the request form or email communications.

  • If necessary to track the appointment request, you may put an MRN in the Unique Appointment Identifier field.

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Communicating with us:

  • Please enter your appointment request here.

  • If your IT environment does not permit the use of Google Forms, you can submit your request by email.

  • Once we have received your assignment, follow-up communication will be by email (support@hcin.org).

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