Doctors' Knowledge of ADA
Lisa I. Iezzoni at STAT:The ADA requires that physicians and/or clinical staff discuss accommodation needs with their patients with disability and collaborate in making reasonable accommodation decisions, emphasizing patients’ preferences. Yet many physicians are unclear about their responsibilities under the ADA.
Between late 2019 and early 2020, several colleagues and I surveyed more than 700 physicians with outpatient practices. Our results, published in the journal Health Affairs, showed that almost 36% of physicians reported knowing little or nothing about their legal responsibilities or obligations under the ADA when caring for patients with disability, while 50% said they had some knowledge. Seventy-one percent did not know who determines reasonable accommodations for patients with disability — that it requires collaboration between patients and physicians and/or clinical staff. Indeed, only 40% of physicians recognized that patients and/or their family should be involved.
