In May 2016, the Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”) issued a Final Rule implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). Section 1557 prohibits “covered entities” from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. The term “covered entities” includes all health care providers that receive payments from the federal government (e.g.,. Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Affairs, TRICARE).
The requirements of the Section 1557 Regulation are sweeping. The law requires providers to adopt nondiscrimination policies, provide free language assistance to individuals with limited English proficiency, and accommodate individuals with disabilities. Under the law, providers must also post a specific notice of their nondiscrimination policies and inform patients that they will provide language assistance free of charge to patients with limited English proficiency. Health care providers with more than fifteen employees are required to adopt a patient discrimination grievance policy and appoint a civil rights coordinator who will oversee implementation of the law’s requirements and investigate and issue decisions relating to patients’ allegations of discrimination.
The Section 1557 Regulation also for the first time creates binding rules that define sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of gender identity. These rules require providers to treat patients based on the patient’s preferred gender. These new rules also require providers to amend their policies on the boarding of transgendered patients and the use of public facilities, such as bathrooms, to ensure equal treatment to transgendered patients based on their stated gender identity.
In addition to these new requirements, the Section 1557 Regulation requires nondiscrimination in the treatment of female patients including treatment and coverage decisions based on pregnancy status. One notable requirement of the law precludes providers from treating female patients differently on the basis of the patient’s decision to terminate a pregnancy.
On December 31, 2016, Judge Reed O’Connor of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a nationwide injunction halting the implementation of the portions of the law that govern the treatment of transgendered patients as well as rules that would bar discrimination in treatment and coverage of female patients on the basis of their decision to terminate a pregnancy. Until the court determines whether DHHS had the authority to create these legal requirements, these portions of the Regulation are not enforceable. You can read the entire decision here.
Providers that have read the news coverage of this recent decision should be aware that all of the other requirements of the law remain intact. Violations of the remaining provisions of the regulation continue to be subject to investigation and regulatory action by the Office of Civil Rights, which has the authority to terminate a provider’s participation in Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE for violations of the law. Providers also continue to be subject to private discrimination lawsuits filed by patients for alleged violations of Section 1557.
If you are a health care provider and are not familiar with the requirements of Section 1557 or have not taken steps to comply with the law, you should quickly take steps to ensure that you become compliant with the law as soon as possible to avoid the risk of an OCR investigation or a lawsuit being filed by current patient.
If you have any questions please feel free to reach out directly to Robb Leandro at RobbLeandro@parkerpoe.com or 919.835.4636.