Increasing Disability Discrimination in the Healthcare Industry

There are three different nondiscrimination laws that mandate that covered healthcare facilities take certain steps to accommodate individuals with disabilities to prevent discrimination.

Healthcare facilities that receive federal funding are considered public accommodations under the law and therefore not allowed to discriminate against anyone with disabilities.

If a person with a qualified disability, such as deafness, for example, is denied their request for a qualified sign language interpreter at a federally funded healthcare center, the healthcare center may be liable for discrimination. This is because denying the request for a ASL interpreter prevented the disabled individual from participating equally in their healthcare.

While a court may order any healthcare facility found guilty of disability discrimination to change their policy, implement new procedures, and provide employee training on disabilities, they can also award plaintiffs who suffered as a result of the healthcare facility’s disability discrimination damages and attorney’s fees because the facility acted with indifference.

Other disabilities that are frequented discriminated against in the healthcare industry include, but are not limited to:

• Blindness
• Individuals who lawfully took controlled substances for medical conditions
• Obesity
• Paralysis

Send us a message if you would like to learn more about disability discrimination in the healthcare industry and if you’ve suffered as a result, contact us to learn more about disability discrimination litigation.