WASHINGTON – On Friday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a final rule implementing the Health Care Rights Act, also known as Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. Section 1557 prohibits health care discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, pregnancy, gender identity, sexual orientation, or sex, including gender stereotyping, in any health care program or activity that receives federal funding.
The final rule addresses the many ways that discrimination in health care contributes to adverse health outcomes, particularly for people of color. Importantly, the final rule prohibits discrimination in the use of patient care decision support tools, such as clinical algorithms, in medical decision-making, a form of discrimination prevalent in health care today. The final rule also requires covered entities to adopt non-discrimination policies and procedures and provide staff training on those procedures, strengthening enforcement of and compliance with the law.
The following statement is from Adria Bonillas, Health Equity Counsel for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
“The final rule’s protections against discriminatory health care are critical to combating racial health care disparities. Equal access to quality health care free of discrimination is essential for Black communities and other communities of color who face alarming rates of discrimination in health care and poorer health outcomes as a result. We applaud the Biden Administration for taking steps to strengthen health care protections for groups that have long faced unequal treatment, but we also recognize that more must be done to protect communities of color from discrimination and eliminate widening health care disparities. The Lawyers’ Committee has advocated to ensure stronger protections for patients of color, and we will continue to help ensure everyone has access to the quality health care they deserve.”
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About Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to mobilize the nation’s leading lawyers as change agents in the civil rights movement. Today, the Lawyers’ Committee achieves racial justice through legal advocacy, fighting inside and outside the courtroom to ensure that Black people and other people of color have the voice, opportunity and power to make the promise of democracy a reality.