Health care providers urged to revisit obligations of accessible health care

DHHS issues guidance letter following nondiscrimination rule

The Department of Health and Human Services has published guidance to help health care providers comply with recent updates to federal regulations prohibiting discrimination in health care on the basis of disability. 

The Office of Civil Rights issued a Dear Colleague letter to clarify how health care providers can accommodate disabled patients using telehealth services, self-serve kiosks, mobile applications, artificial intelligence and more. The guidance follows updates to two regulations governing the treatment of patients with disabilities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, both published last year. 

The Dear Colleague letter clarifies that health care providers must notify patients with disabilities that auxiliary communication aids and services are available at no cost; ensure telehealth services are accessible to people with disabilities; provide alternate methods for people with disabilities where self-service kiosks are offered; ensure websites and mobile applications are readily accessible and usable by people with disabilities; and ensure medical diagnostic equipment is compliant with the U.S. Access Board’s accessibility standards.

The guidance letter also emphasizes that covered providers must make reasonable efforts to mitigate the risk of discrimination where clinical algorithms, predictive analytics and other artificial intelligence tools are used. 

The guidance letter does not address the nondisabilities portions of the civil rights regulations updated last year. Certain of those provisions are on hold pending the outcome of several lawsuits, such as challenges to the agency’s interpretation of discrimination “on the basis of sex” to include sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics.