ACA Section 1557: What your practice needs to know

Section 1557 is the civil rights provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability in health programs and activities. It builds on longstanding federal civil rights laws that have already applied to most healthcare practices, such as the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). On May 18, 2016, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a final rule implementing Section 1557.  While many of the provisions of Section 1557’s regulations are not new to physician group practices, there are several clarifications of existing requirements.