[Nfbnet-members-list] FW: National Federation of the Blind and Disability Advocates Charge Federal Health Agency with Civil Rights Violations
Kuhnke, Kristian
KKuhnke at nfb.org
Wed Feb 10 17:30:14 UTC 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contacts:
Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind
(410) 659-9314, extension 2330
(410) 262-1281 (Cell)
<mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org
Silvia Yee
Senior Staff Attorney
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
(510) 644-2555
<mailto:syee at dredf.org>syee at dredf.org
National Federation of the Blind and Disability
Advocates Charge Federal Health Agency with Civil Rights Violations
After forty years of the federal Rehabilitation
Act and a new world of technology, blind people
still forced to rely on others to read inaccessible materials
Springfield, Massachusetts (February 10, 2016):
The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and
individual plaintiffs Juan Figueroa, Derek
Manners, and Martti Mallinen announced the filing
of a major federal lawsuit today in US District
Court, District of Massachusetts, Western
Division. The lawsuit charges the US Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) through its
sub-agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS), and its CMS sub-contractors, with
systemically violating the civil rights of blind Medicare recipients.
The action seeks to require HHS to provide blind
individuals meaningful and equally effective
access to their Medicare information, as required
by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,
29 U.S.C. § 794 (Section 504). CMS, a sub-agency
of HHS, is the largest single payer for health
care in the United States, providing health care
coverage to nearly ninety million Americans
through Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Childrens Health Insurance Program.
CMS regularly communicates information to blind
persons via inaccessible print and electronic
formats which they cannot read. Mr. Figueroa, Mr.
Manners, Mr. Mallinen, and many other NFB members
have thus faced or been at risk for loss of
benefits and healthcare disruption. For example,
Mr. Mallinen has received information about
denial of benefits and his right to appeal said
denial that he could not read, potentially
adversely affecting his appeal rights.
Mark A. Riccobono, President of the National
Federation of the Blind, said: "We are outraged
that blind people do not have access to their
personal Medicare and Medicaid information forty
years after the passage of the Rehabilitation act
and almost a year after CMS promised to implement
a plan for equal access. Today blind people
readily access information in more ways than ever
before but even large print access, the simplest
possible solution for those with sufficient
residual vision, is not made available. This
continued disregard for the privacy and civil
rights of the blind is inexcusable, and blind Americans will not tolerate it."
At a time when smart technology is presumed to be
improving the lives of people with a variety of
disabilities, blind Americans who rely on
healthcare services provided through Medicare and
Medicare contractors are forced to divulge
personal and financial data to a sighted
third-party when responding to CMS. Electronic
and online materials may not be any more
accessible than printed ones. As a result, blind
Medicare beneficiaries are often unnecessarily
prevented from independently reading, filling
out, signing and submitting online forms.
Appropriate auxiliary aids and services for blind
individuals may include providing documents in
alternative formats such as Braille, large print,
audio CD, and digital navigable formats supported
by computers and digital talking-book players,
transmitted through data CD, e-mail, or other requested media.
The filing follows an investigation launched by
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
(DREDF) to establish that there were widespread
incidences of communication access barriers in
CMS systems. In August 2014, in response to
complaints filed with the HHS Office for Civil
Rights (OCR) in 2011 and 2012 under Section 504,
CMS entered into an agreement with OCR. The
complaints were filed on behalf of blind Medicare
beneficiaries, and those similarly situated, who
were not provided with notice of their rights or
with effective communication under Section
504. The agreement signed by CMS and OCR,
entitled the Commitment to Action to Resolve
DREDF Section 504 Complaints (Commitment to
Action), established a timeframe within which CMS
would take specified actions to ensure the
agencys compliance with Section 504 in the areas
raised in OCRs investigation of the complaints,
found at
<http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/activities/agreements/cms.html>http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/civilrights/activities/agreements/cms.html.
DREDF Senior Attorney, Silvia Yee, said, CMS was
required to complete a Long-Term Action Plan by
April 2015 that would ensure effective
cross-disability communication access, as well as
the timely provision of auxiliary aids and
services to CMS beneficiaries and consumers. To
date, we have not seen a Plan. People with
disabilities have not been notified of any such
plan. As a public entity that deals every day
with people with disabilities and older
Americans, CMS should lead the way to ensure
compliance with disability civil rights laws, not lag behind by four decades."
Plaintiffs are represented by DREDF; Brown,
Goldstein & Levy; and Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen (SRBC).
###
The National Federation of the Blind
The National Federation of the Blind knows that
blindness is not the characteristic that defines
you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low
expectations create obstacles between blind
people and our dreams. You can live the life you
want; blindness is not what holds you back. <https://nfb.org>https://nfb.org
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
Founded in 1979 by people with disabilities and
parents of children with disabilities, the
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
(DREDF) is a national law and policy center based
in Berkeley, CA and is dedicated to protecting
and advancing the civil rights of people with
disabilities. <http://www.dredf.org>www.dredf.org.
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