Welcome These New Members 

Find out who the new faces are.  Visit epcms.org 

Learn more about them using the

 Find a Physician 

Tool

 Survey Your Knowledge

We are conducting a survey of medical professionals' knowledge of the ADA. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete, and participants will be entered into a drawing for one of ten $25 Visa gift cards.

Take the Survey 

Featured Article

Help guide Colorado hospitals as we work to chart the course for transformational, coordinated, safe patient care.

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The new era of health care delivery and financing will depend on well designed collaborative partnerships between hospital leadership and the medical staff in order to ensure tangible progress in the area of performance improvement and patient safety.

Patient Safety  Leadership Congress

October 12, 2011

Denver, CO

Registration deadline
 is September 30th

Find out more....

A variety of important topics will be covered:

Seeking Perfection in Healthcare

Seven Pillars-Shared Physician and Hospital Accountability

Creating Urgency and Aligning Expectations (Compact)

Identifying Top Organizational Challenges

Reflections on the Critical Importance of Leadership and Building a Culture of Accountability

 Friends of EPCMS

The Parade of Homes will be held August 5-21

Check the progress of each home here

Email Dawn White

or call 719.219.5421

Visit This Friend

email Friends of EPCMS 

Don't miss

The Financial Checkup

presented by Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

Examining patients every year is a good idea....

Shouldn't you do the same with your practice?

R.S.V.P. here

For more information call 719.577.6333 or email

Visit This Friend

By Carol Walker, EPCMS EVP

Medical Providers and the Americans With Disabilities Act

 

     Questions and Answers

 

     Benefits to Your Older Patients

 

     Tax Deductions Available

 

     Tax Incentives For Employers

 

     Survey Your Knowledge

 

The key for medical practices is knowledge and planning

Your office manager gets a relay telephone call from an individual who is deaf who wants to schedule an appointment. The individual then states that they need you to provide a sign language interpreter in accordance with the ADA. Do you have to provide an interpreter? Aren't they expensive? What does the ADA say? What is the ADA?

Many medical offices don't consider these types of situations. Then they receive a call like the one above and find themselves in a reactionary mode, madly trying to get information quickly. The key for medical practices is knowledge and planning.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in the areas of employment, state and local government programs, and private businesses. The ADA requires medical providers to make their services available in an accessible manner to people with disabilities. Medical providers must provide the same services to patients with disabilities as provided to patients without disabilities. Providers cannot deny service to a patient with a disability simply because of their disability if it is person whom they would otherwise serve.

The ADA states that medical providers must provide reasonable modifications to policies, practices and procedures to make health care services fully accessible to individuals with disabilities. However, the ADA also has built in protections for medical providers. If the requested modification would fundamentally alter the nature of the service, program or business operation, if the modification constitutes a direct threat with a significant risk of substantial harm, or if it would constitute an undue burden, defined as significant difficulty, expense or disruption, it may not be necessary to provide that particular modification.

Keep in mind that reasonable modifications are not just for patients with mobility or sensory disabilities. Reasonable modifications for a patient with an intellectual disability may include allowing extra time for an appointment or assistance in filling out forms. Reasonable modifications for patients with psychiatric disabilities may include changing the way a procedure is normally done to reduce a patient's fear or verbally explaining procedures before starting. When considering if a modification is a significant expense, and thus an undue burden, the financial resources of the entire organization must be considered, not just the fee the patient is paying. Also, when evaluating if a modification would be considered a significant expense, a private medical practice must first apply appropriate tax credits and deductions.

Small businesses with 30 or fewer employees or total revenues of $1 million or less can use the Disabled Access Credit (Internal Revenue Code, Section 44). Eligible small businesses may take a yearly credit of up to $5,000 (half of eligible expenses up to $10,250, with no credit for the first $250) to offset their costs for access, including barrier removal from their facilities (e.g., widening a doorway, installing a ramp), provision of accessibility services (e.g., sign language interpreters), provisions of printed material in alternate formats (e.g., large print, audio, Braille), and provision or modification of equipment. Businesses of all sizes may take advantage of Internal Revenue Code, Section 190, by taking a business expense deduction of up to $15,000 per year for the costs of removing barriers in facilities or vehicles.

We will be looking at several modifications more in-depth in subsequent articles in this series.  In the next issue of epcmsXPRESS, we'll go into the issue of effective communication under the ADA. 

For additional information, please contact the Rocky Mountain ADA Center at 1.800.949.4232 or visit our website.  The Rocky Mountain ADA Center is available to answer any questions, provide training, and disseminate materials regarding the ADA.

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