Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Doug Dahl provided insights for an article in The Tennessean on the new regulations imposed on healthcare providers under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Under the new regulations, which were issued in May and had an initial compliance deadline of mid-July, it is now illegal for any healthcare provider that receives federal funding to discriminate against patients on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, age and disability. In addition to a complaint portal that will be set up with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as part of Section 1557, healthcare providers are required to establish a grievance process in which patients can file a complaint if they feel discriminated against on the basis of the protected classes. However, as Doug points out in the article, “[i]t’s not clear how the complaint process is going to work through HHS after being submitted through the portal.
The full article, “New Rules Prohibit Sex, Race Discrimination in Health Care,” was published by The Tennessean on August 8, 2016 and is available online.