Act Now - Patient Nondiscrimination Posting Now Required

Most doctors of optometry now need to comply with new regulations required by the patient nondiscrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) - section 1557 - which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability. Failure to comply could lead to severe consequences. The new regulations require doctors of optometry who accept federal financial assistance such as Medi-Cal reimbursement, Medicare Advantage payments, community health center prospective patients or grants from the National Institutes of Health (click here for more information on financial assistance), to:

• Post a notice of nondiscrimination in public spaces in your practice and on your website (click here for a sample notice).
• Post taglines consisting of up to 15 top languages that alert individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) to the availability of language assistance. Click here for the top 15 languages the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has determined are spoken in California. Click here for tagline translations for 64 languages.
• Create a grievance procedure and establish a coordinator position if your practice employs 15 or more. Click here for a sample grievance procedure.
• Ensure that all your practice’s policies and procedures comply with the 1557 regulations.

Please open the links above for valuable additional information on complying with the new rule. In addition, AOA has created a fact sheet containing more information and sample materials to assist doctors in complying. For questions, please contact Jensen Jose at AOA.

Failure to comply with these requirements could lead to the suspension, termination, refusal to grant or continue federal financial assistance; referral to the U.S. Department of Justice with a recommendation to bring proceedings to enforce; and the filing of a civil action by an individual.