Blue Cross NC working with providers to support member language assistance

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) is working with our in-network providers in understanding and meeting the linguistic needs of our diverse member populations.

Please continue to let us know if you notice any language gaps by emailing our Health Equity team, so we can further support our members.

According to Experian data and the Blue Cross NC Translation Service Line data, Commercial non-English speakers represent 10% of the population, with more than half indicating Spanish as their primary language. Marketplace non-English speakers represent 9% of the population, with 38% indicating Spanish as their primary language.

Below are the top 10 languages separated by population whose primary language is not English.

• Spanish
• Asian Indian
• Mandarin
• French
• Vietnamese
• Arabic
• Italian
• Korean
• Urdu
• Russian

• Spanish
• Vietnamese
• Asian Indian
• Mandarin
• Arabic
• Urdu
• Korean
• Russian
• French
• Italian

Spanish dominates these populations. The remaining predominant languages are similar between Commercial and Marketplace, although in varying order. Together, Asian Indian (Hindi or other) (22.21%), Vietnamese (14.63%), and Mandarin (15.29%) top the lists.

It is worth noting the variances in the lesser languages for Commercial and Marketplace, specifically Hindi, Mandarin, French, and Vietnamese for Commercial and Vietnamese, Hindi, Mandarin, and Arabic for Marketplace.

Our Translation Services Line requests reveal that Spanish is the dominant translation service request with Mandarin and Vietnamese ranking second and third.

Most frequent Customer Service Translation requests per language type:

• Spanish
• Mandarin
• Vietnamese
• Korean
• French
• Cantonese
• Russian

Language assistance is available for members who need it by calling the customer service phone number found on the back of their ID card.