NASHVILLE – Federal officials announced Friday they have reached an early-case resolution with Tennessee after state officials agreed to update their crisis medical standards of care to ensure they don’t discriminate against people based on disability or age by rationing their care.
It’s the fourth such coronavirus-era agreement struck with a state following complaints filed by disability advocacy groups, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights said.
The federal office’s director, Roger Severino, said in a statement, “We commend Tennessee for updating its policies to ensure that hospitals do not deny life-saving care during a crisis based on stereotypes about disabilities or other impermissible factors. Our civil rights laws reflect the principle that we are all created with equal dignity and worth.”
Stemming from from COVID-19 pandemic concerns, Tennessee’s disability advocates as well as their national counterparts raised the issue here and at the federal level in March after discovering a 2016 state document called “Guidelines for the Ethical Allocation of Scarce Resources.”
They charged the Tennessee document would “permit and advise that in the context of a crisis like COVID-19, health care providers [can] discriminate on the basis of disability in violation of federal law.” Advocates said the guidelines excluded people with disabilities from critical care, including ventilators, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.