What Happens if You Neglect Translation and Interpretation?

Even in some larger companies, you would be surprised to find how little thought is put into translation and interpretation until it’s too late. A number of CEOs or business owners only consider translation and interpretation services following a breakdown in meetings with international clients or partners.

Struggling to understand each others’ language in an important meeting shouldn’t be the first sign of needing translation or interpretation services — it’s something best planned in advance. In this blog, the Akorbi team examines the risks of neglecting to think ahead when it comes to translation and interpretation.

You’ll Fall Behind Your Competition

Plenty of organizations, corporations, and other companies large and small are making the most of translation and interpretation services. If it’s an area you’ve been neglecting, especially if you provide a product or service to a wider or global audience, you risk falling far behind your competition. Not only that, but thanks to how quickly business moves, you’re likely to have a harder time catching up the longer you wait.

Your Processes Could Be Slower and Less Efficient

Internal functioning could also be impacted by not having good translation or interpretation resources in place. If you find yourself struggling with interpreting or translating contracts or documents for clients or other companies, the stress will filter through to your own staff.

Putting the pressure of translating important communications on an untrained member of your staff who happens speak the specific language will only make things worse. As we’ve said in the past, translating and interpreting is more than just substituting words, and putting that pressure on untrained staff won’t help.

You’re Likely to Lose Credibility and Businesses

The damage of neglecting to look into translation and interpretation services isn’t just to your internal processes. Being unable to provide bilingual or multilingual options to customers, clients or partners is going to hurt your reputation. If your company releases unprofessional translated material, clients and competitors will see that you’re failing to cater to a potentially much larger audience, and your image will suffer. You don’t need us to tell you that if your reputation is hurt, so is your business.

Let Akorbi Take Care of Your Translation and Interpretation Needs

If you are reconsidering the importance of planning ahead, then get in touch with Akorbi today. We have been offering professional translation, interpretation and multilingual staffing solutions to clients worldwide for long enough to know it matters. Having adept, professional, multilingual staff on your team, or related resources available to you, is vital to a modern organization — don’t fall behind.

Important Steps in Staffing Solutions: Language Skill Assessments

Reliable multilingual staffing solutions can be hard to find, and choosing the right staffing solutions provider with the right skills takes time. At Akorbi, we value the professional confidence of our clients.  We want our clients to be certain that the excellent staff we provide will possess the education, skills, and experience to really help you succeed. Proper education and assessment of language and translation skills are what make a multilingual employee a vital member of the team at Akorbi. In this blog entry, we are going to explain how and why assessments matter.

Not Every Multilingual Speaker Can Interpret or Translate

One of the most important considerations, when you’re seeking staffing solutions for translation is finding someone truly qualified. Not every multilingual speaker is necessarily going to be an effective translator or interpreter. Translation and interpretation is more than just substituting one word for another, it requires a real understanding of meaning and context.

This means understanding specific dialects, colloquialisms, slang, and context, which we’ve talked about in previous Akorbi blogs. Translators or interpreters who go through skills assessments have proven their abilities with clear, quantifiable metrics.

Skill Assessments Demonstrate Versatility

Skill assessments are also a way to demonstrate versatility in abilities. When you’re looking for staffing solutions for translation, interpretations, or any other multilingual staffing needs, you want to be sure that staff is adaptable. This is especially true if you’re operating with other organizations, teams, or customers in other countries.

Multilingual staff will need to be able to fluidly switch between languages without losing the core messages that need to be communicated. Part of skill assessment is being able to demonstrate general knowledge, the right grammar and vocabulary skills, specific terminology and more.

Who Gets Their Skills Assessed?

Anyone who translates or interprets professionally can benefit from regular skills assessments. This is part of continually developing and honing translation and language skills, which is one of the key ingredients to being an effective translator. Translators or interpreters working in specialized fields, such as the medical industry, should especially focus on skill assessments. Industries like medical, tech, or education are always changing, sometimes rapidly, so ongoing development is vital.

Staffing Solutions with Akorbi

If you’re looking the best in multilingual staffing solutions, talk to one of the experts at Akorbi. We understand that you are not just looking for employees, but valuable team members to add something to your organization. You can rely on Akorbi for technical, professional and high volume staffing services in the US and throughout the world.

Why You Should Hire a Translation Service for Translating Legal Documents

Legal paperwork of any kind can be difficult to complete. Depending on the length and nature of the documents, completing them can cause you a significant amount of stress. If the paperwork is in a different language than yours, or one that you are unable to speak fluently, things get even more complex. Luckily, Akorbi can provide translation services for accurately translating legal documents.

Whether you are producing legal documents in another language, or having to deal with legal documents yourself, a professional translation service can save you a lot of time and stress. In this blog, Akorbi explains how translation services can help with different types of legal documentation.

You Can’t Rely on Online Translation for Legal Purposes

As advanced as many free-to-use online translation services may be, they’re not something you can rely on for translating legal documents. Words and simple phrases may be fine, but legal documentation often includes vital information that can cause serious issues if it’s misinterpreted. If you try and translate legal paperwork yourself using free online resources, you may well find yourself wasting valuable time having to research specific terms, only to end up mistranslating them anyway.

Legal Documentation Often Involves Complex, Detailed Terminology

Part of the reason for this is the complexity of legal terminology. Whatever language legal paperwork is written in, it’s likely to be difficult to unravel even for a native speaker. Translating this kind of dense, detailed language from one language into another while retaining the right meaning and context can be extremely difficult. You need a professional who is not only able to translate one word into another but also understand the overall legal context and interpret it correctly.

You Can Get Your Questions Answered

If you’re using a professional agency for translation services, you also have the added benefit of being able to ask questions. As we already mentioned, trying to translate legal documents yourself, or even having a team member who can speak the right language, is going to result in hours of research. Utilizing a dedicated professional from Akorbi means you also have someone to act as a resource for accurate information. This frees you up to get other things done, without having to waste your valuable time.

The Court Might Require It

While it’s not required in every case, some situations may require legal documents to be certified by a professional. If you’ve spent all your time attempting to translate content yourself, you may ultimately find that the documents aren’t valid until they’re properly authenticated. Research what you will need before hand, before you start, and contact us for professional translation services to avoid additional hassle.

Talk to the Professionals About Translation Services

Whatever you need translated, Akorbi is here to help. Our experienced translation and interpretation teams can guide you through legal documentation, provide translations, offer project management services and solutions and much more. For all of your multilingual needs and staffing solutions, contact Akorbi today.

Medicare Compliant Translation and Interpretation from Akorbi

If you work for a health insurance company, you are a medical provider, or you are a healthcare professional dealing with Medicare funds, you are probably faced with supporting a high volume of language-related requests. These requests may include translating documents such as an Explanation of Benefits, Explanation Of Coverage, Summary of Benefits, denial letters, and other communications in different languages, medical or mental health appointments, or interpretations of enrollment meetings.

You are bound by rigorous legislation over privacy, demanding deadlines and volumes that can change significantly from one hour to the other. To help you manage these things, you need a Medicare Compliant Translation company that understands Medicare and Medicaid laws, funding, and compliance. They must also comply with the time frames, be auditable, and work well with you and your organization. They should scale and provide flexible adjustments to your workflow or demands.

In order for our company to be Medicare compliant, these are some of the main items that we cover:

1. Code of Conduct(“COC”) and/or Compliance Policies

Akorbi has adopted compliance policies and distributed them to all employees within 90 days of hire. These materials are redistributed annually and any time revisions are made to them.

2. CMS’ Fraud, Waste and Abuse (“FWA”) Training

Our employees have satisfied the requirements for FWA training or have been deemed to have met them. Employees are required to complete the CMS’ Combating Medicare Parts C & D Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Training model within 90 days of their hiring and every year following. In order to be deemed to have met the requirements, employees may enroll in Parts A or B of the Medicare program. They may also complete the training on the Medicare Learning Network (MLN) or as part of our internal training system.

3. CMS’ General Compliance Training

Akorbi employees complete CMS’ Medicare Parts C&D General Compliance Training module within 90 days of their being hired, and every year after. Training is completed on the MLN or as part of our internal training.

4. Office of Inspector General and General Services Administration’s System for Award Management Exclusion Screening

Akorbi screens the US Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General and the General Services Administration’s System for Award Management exclusion lists prior to hiring and contracting new employees and Downstream Entities. We check these lists monthly and remove any persons/entities from work on Aetna Medicare business if they appear on these lists.

5. Reporting Mechanisms

We have communicated to all of our employees how the may report suspected or detected non-compliance or potential FWA. We have communicated their obligation to report without fear of retaliation or intimidation against reports made in good faith. Reporting mechanisms include reporting directly with Aetna or the confidential and anonymous mechanisms for internal reporting. We promptly communicate internal reports to Aetna when applicable.

6. Offshore Operations

For any work that involves receiving, processing, transferring, handling, storing or accessing Protected Health Information, Akorbi will perform in the following ways: perform the work onshore, have Downstream Entities perform the work onshore, or perform the work offshore (ourselves or through a Downstream Entity) with approval from an authorized Aetna representative.

7. Downstream Entity Oversight

Any Downstream Entity used by Akorbi will receive robust oversight to ensure their compliance with all requirements, such as FWA training and exclusion screening, laws, rules, and regulations.

8. Operational Oversight

Akorbi conducts internal oversight of all services we perform for Aetna Medicare to ensure that we maintain our compliance with all laws, rules, and regulations. We also keep a Compliance Officer on-site whose job is to help us remain in compliance with the rules of Medicare.

Akorbi: Superior Medicare-Compliant Language Services

For Medicare-Compliant language services you can trust, choose Akorbi. Akorbi has a longstanding reputation for excellent translation for businesses working in the medical field, legal field, and many more. Let us help you navigate the difficulties of compliance — contact Akorbi today.

Akorbi Delivers Interpretation Services for the Medical Field

When a patient is critically ill, every detail matters. When the patient doesn’t speak the same language as your medical staff, the details matter even more. Akorbi offers a complete spectrum of translation and interpretation services. From immediate interpreter service over the phone, to in-person interpreter service scheduled in advance, Akorbi helps your medical staff communicate in more than 150 languages. We are ready when you need us.

Patient Centered Healthcare in a Multilingual World

Akorbi’s certified interpreters are selected with industry specific qualifications for medical service provision. Our staff provide culturally informed and empathetic service, as cultural liaisons as well as linguistic professionals.

The provision of qualified, culturally competent interpretation services can resolve obstacles to care, improve outcomes and reduce expenses. Patient comfort and compliance is greatly improved with multilingual medical service. Diagnosis and treatment are improved when patients are better able to report symptomatology. Patients feel empowered when they fully understand the course of treatment, improving the quality of informed consent and ethical care.

Advanced Interpretation Solutions for the Medical Field

With ADAPT powered by Akorbi, your entire database of multilingual content is available in a simple platform that syncs seamlessly with your existing network. ADAPT is compatible with Windows, Apple, Android, and iOS operating system software.

Akorbi offers rapid completion of transcription tasks, so when a world renowned medical specialist is consulting on a difficult case, all relevant documents will be available and multilingual. End-to-end encrypted data and video services are available, so your translated material is kept private for HIPAA compliant communication.

If your organization has an existing, single-language website, Akorbi website localization services will translate every instance of text on your primary website into a second, nearly identical website in your chosen language. When you add new content to your primary language website, Akorbi automatically discovers and translates the new material to your multilingual websites.

A Wide Range of Multilingual Services to Meet Your Unique Needs

Akorbi offers multilingual translation and interpretation services for any communication need that might arise in your medical enterprise. Many varied services are available, read on to discover everything Akorbi has to offer.

In-person Interpretation services can be scheduled on short notice or months in advance. Specify the date, time, location, and languages to be interpreted, and your interpreter will be there for you, as scheduled. Akorbi integrates with your Outlook and Apple calendars, for easy management of services.

Telephone Interpretation services are available in more than 150 languages, within minutes of your call, accessible with cell phones as well as landline phones.

Video Interpretation service is available for live as well as recorded content. End to end encryption is available, for secure communication. Live video interpretation services are compatible with Polycom, Tandberg and Cisco video conferencing devices, as well as Android and iOS cellular devices.

Document and Digital Translation services employ industry specific translators with technical knowledge of the material, so even the complicated and nuanced language of the medical field is translated clearly and accurately. Enhanced Machine Translation service provides fast and inexpensive translations using technical terminology that is specific to your organization and industry. Text message and email translation services simplify your work at home and abroad, so your organization’s representatives are able to get business done in any language.