Las Vegas Sun: Las Vegas health providers urge federal officials to include frontline voices in language-access task force

Local healthcare providers and advocates gathered with U.S. Rep. Susie Lee this week to send a clear message: While new federal legislation is a step in the right direction, the fight for language access in Southern Nevada’s healthcare system is far from over.

The roundtable served as a critical feedback loop for the bipartisan Supporting Patient Education and Knowledge (SPEAK) Act. Co-sponsored by Lee, D-Nev., and enacted in February as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026, the law directs the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a task force and issue guidance on best practices for telehealth and patient portals for non-English speakers.

But for those on the frontlines in a state where nearly 30% of residents speak a language other than English at home, the legislation is a starting point, not a finish line.

“We’re going to make sure that the task force lives up to the goal of the bill,” Lee told the group Thursday. “Healthcare is something that’s so incredibly important and personal, and something that we struggle with here in Southern Nevada, and that’s before we even get to language access, and that’s why this roundtable is so important to me.”

The urgency of the conversation is underscored by Nevada’s dismal healthcare rankings. The West Health-Gallup Center for Healthcare in America ranked Nevada 50th out of 51 jurisdictions — 50 states and the District of Columbia — in its 2025 survey. With all 17 of the state’s counties carrying some form of health professional shortage designation, language barriers compound an already perilous environment for patients.

Lee met with more than a dozen community leaders, interpreters and providers serving Latino, Asian and African diaspora communities to discuss how the SPEAK Act’s guidance — which covers everything from multilingual information distribution to the use of interpreters — can be practically applied.

Dr. Ati Hakimi, a physician at Vegas Direct Primary Care, noted that the legislation is a vital protection for telehealth, which she described as “invaluable” during COVID-era lockdowns and remains essential for Nevada’s rural populations. However, she warned that language gaps directly jeopardize patient health.

In many cases, families rely on English-speaking children to translate complex medical instructions, a practice that can lead to dangerous misinterpretations. “That affects their safety and their well-being,” Hakimi said.

Dr. William Nham, a family medicine physician at North East Medical Services in Las Vegas, pointed out that language access often ends the moment a patient leaves the clinic. While his office provides interpreters, patients can encounter barriers when trying to coordinate care with outside specialists.

“We take care of a diverse population, and access to language is very important to us and our patients, but I see some difficulties, even though we have the interpretation in our clinic,” Nham said. “I think language access should be universal to the healthcare system, not just for providers.”

The providers also highlighted the financial and logistical hurdles of implementation. Hakimi argued that the cost of language tools should not fall solely on private practices, suggesting that insurance companies should bear that cost as part of comprehensive patient care.

Other participants urged the task force to account for nuances in communication, such as the need for interpreters fluent in specific dialects and those trained for high-stress environments such as emergency rooms, where a different approach is needed than for psychological therapy.

Lee told the group the task force would evaluate these suggestions and explore solutions ranging from traditional methods to artificial intelligence. For the providers in the room, the priority is ensuring that those actually treating patients have a hand in writing the rules.

“We need to be at that table discussing the options and what we’re going to be doing in the finality of this because we are the ones that are actually taking care of these patients at the end,” Hakimi told Lee. “If we are working with the HHS to make this happen, please have us at that table.”