May 17, 2020
Brief of the American Association of People With Disabilities, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, and 15 Other Leading National Disability Rights Organizations as Amici Curiae in Support of Petitioners [...]
May 14, 2020
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, the Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and 17 other national disability rights organizations filed an amicus brief in California v. Texas, a case that will be heard by the Supreme Court in the fall. The brief supports 21 states that are defending the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and provides evidence of how Congress, in the ACA, clearly and intentionally strengthened comprehensive and affordable health coverage for people wilth disabilities.
April 23, 2020
DREDF and eleven other civil rights and consumer advocacy organizations sent a letter on April 23 to Governor Newsom, opposing an April 9 request from health provider organizations, including nursing homes, for complete immunity from "any administrative sanction or criminal or civil liability" during the COVID-19 crisis.
April 30, 2020
People with marginalized bodies face historic and present discrimination in health care. Laws like the ADA and the Affordable Care Act prohibit such discrimination. But the COVID-19 crisis is heightening the risk of discrimination in health care. States, hospitals, and professional organizations have developed policies about who should receive treatment when there are not enough resources to treat everyone who needs medical care. Many of these policies could result in a denial of care of disabled people, trans people, and higher weight people. And many hospitals are failing to ensure the reasonable accommodations people need to access care, such as effective communication or allowing a support person.
April 6, 2020
DREDF submitted targeted comments on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) proposed rule for Contract Year 2021 and 2022 on Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage Program, Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Program, Medicaid Program, Medicare Cost Plan Program, and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (the Proposed Rule). There are a significant number of people with disabilities who are Medicare enrollees, some of whom are also dually eligible for Medicaid. We have focused our comments primarily on revisions to supplemental benefits for beneficiaries with chronic conditions, network adequacy, D-SNP Look-Alike Plans, and Real-Time Benefit Tools. [...]
April 7, 2020
The Department's NPRM is the latest iteration of those efforts. In our comments, we respond to the Department's specific questions and proposed regulatory language. Our comments referencing "service animals" refer to an animal trained to perform specific work or tasks to mitigate the effects of a disability. The term "emotional support animal" refers to an animal whose presence and untrained supportive behaviors assist a person with a disability. [...]
March 16, 2020
DREDF submitted comments March 16 to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) proposed rule to weaken the 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule in an effort to reverse government progress on discriminatory housing practices. The proposal affects people with disabilities and communities of color by allowing local jurisdictions to leave unaddressed fundamental disability and racial segregation obligations of fair housing law. DREDF urges HUD to uphold its commitment to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing for people with disabilities and other covered classes, and to withdraw this proposed rule in its entirety and reinstate the 2015 AFFH Rule. [...]
March 2, 2020
DREDF submitted comments to HHS on proposed rules that would affect the implementation of sections of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) that directly affect people with disabilities. In our comments, we urge HHS to withdraw proposals that would weaken the ACA’s “Essential Health Benefit” provisions, impose new financial reporting burdens on healthcare marketplace consumers, and make it more difficult for consumers to pay for prescription drugs. We also urged HHS to not expand the use of discriminatory “wellness programs” in health plans in the individual market. Finally, we supported HHS’ proposal to expand the availability of special enrollment periods for health care consumers. [...]
February 18, 2020
BOSTON—The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) announced today a landmark settlement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that institutes a series of new guidelines to make the university's website and online resources accessible for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. The settlement follows a similar agreement with Harvard University in November 2019, which together represent the most comprehensive set of online accessibility requirements in higher education and provide a new model for ensuring worldwide online and digital accessibility in academia and business for people who are deaf and hard of hearing. [...]
February 12, 2020
The Board of Directors and staff of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund express our profound appreciation to Arlene Mayerson who has decided to step away from her position as founding Directing Attorney after 40 years. Arlene has led DREDF's legal efforts with brilliance, integrity and compassion. Starting her career when disability rights law was nascent, she played a key role not only in developing and passing the seminal disability rights laws of the last four decades, but also in conceptualizing disability law's equality principles.