HHS has released enhanced “National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care,” which is a series of guidelines to inform and facilitate practices related to culturally and linguistically appropriate health services. The 15 standards, which were developed by the HHS Office of Minority Health, comprehensively update earlier national standards released over a decade ago. The principal standard is for organizations to “provide effective, equitable, understandable, and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, health literacy, and other communication needs.” In a related, development, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has announced a national compliance review initiative, “Advancing Effective Communication in Critical Access Hospitals,” to support language access programs in these hospitals.