Monday, November 5, 2007

Non-English Speakers Charge Bias in Prescription Labeling

Pharmacies across the city routinely fail to help non-English speakers understand their prescriptions, raising the chances that customers could harm themselves by taking medicines incorrectly, immigrant advocacy groups charge in a discrimination complaint that they plan to file today with the New York attorney general’s office.

The complaint names 16 pharmacies in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, most of them operated by chains. It argues that federal civil rights law and state health regulations require pharmacies to provide linguistic help to guarantee that people who speak little or no English receive equal access to health care. That assistance should include interpreters at pharmacies and written translations of medication instructions, the advocates say.

Nisha Agarwal, a lawyer for one of the groups filing the complaint, said the attorney general’s office had already issued subpoenas to several pharmacies listed in an earlier version of the complaint filed in July. The new version names more pharmacies, and an accompanying report includes more examples of comprehension problems non-English speakers have had.

READ MORE @ NY TIMES