HHS Office for Civil Rights Director Melanie Fontes Rainer on Progress and News at OCR
Updates to Statute 1557 that Healthcare Providers Need to Know
On March 7, 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) had initiated four investigations into unnamed medical schools and hospitals over allegations that the...more
On March 7, 2025, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it would begin investigating four medical schools and hospitals pursuant to President Donald Trump’s...more
Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability, or any combination thereof, in a health program or activity, any part of which is...more
On May 6, 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published the long-awaited Nondiscrimination in Health Programs...more
Last month, in Cummings v. Premier Rehab Keller, P.L.L.C., the Supreme Court denied a petitioner’s right to emotional distress damages in a private action brought under federal anti-discrimination laws. The Petitioner, a...more
This summer I wrote about the dangers of English-only policies in this age of multiculturalism. These policies tend to emerge more frequently in the healthcare workplace, the reason being – the provision of quality care is...more
On May 18, 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule (the Rule) implementing the prohibition on discrimination under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Section 1557 prohibits...more