This is the best way to see that your website is continually up-to-date and complies with the ever-evolving ADA regulations and guidelines.
Scenario: A Medicare patient using a cane and considered legally blind refuses to pay their co-pay. The patient is seen again and still does not pay the obligation for coinsurance. The office suggests that the patient see another physician. It offers to make their records available and will terminate care in thirty days. The certified letter to the patient explained that waiving the coinsurance was illegal.
The patient threatened to report the doctor and the practice to state and federal agencies for discrimination against people with disabilities because the practice wasn't handicapped accessible, the website violated the guidelines of the American Disability Act (ADA) with a non-ADA-compliant website.
Before this incident, the doctor hired IT to make the practice website ADA-compatible. The doctor's attorney informed the patient that the website was compliant and met the ADA guidelines. The lawyer told the patient that if the patient persists, the doctor will consider legal action against the patient.
With the thought that the patient might be involved in legal action that entails hiring and paying for an attorney, the patient had an "attitude adjustment" and paid the co-pays.
Although the doctor prevailed, it was a source of anxiety, spending time with legal counsel and the expense of the attorney.
Unfortunately, unscrupulous people find money by harassing healthcare providers about their compliance with ADA guidelines. The number of small businesses sued federally for website accessibility in 2018 was 2285 lawsuits—up 181% over 2017, with 814 lawsuits filed. The number has increased since then. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal civil rights law passed in 1990 that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities
ADA compliance for medical practice websites must ensure that the website is accessible and used by people with disabilities, including those with visual, auditory, cognitive, or motor impairments.
Why it's necessary to have an ADA-compliant website?
First and foremost, it is a legal requirement under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, which prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including online. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in costly lawsuits, damage to a practice's reputation, and loss of potential patients. Having an accessible website can provide a practice with a competitive advantage.
A medical website accessible to everyone can attract a broader audience and increase potential patients. Moreover, accessible websites can improve search engine optimization (SEO) and make it easier for potential and existing patients to find and locate a healthcare practice online.
Additionally, having an ADA-compliant website ensures all individuals can access and interact with its content regardless of their abilities. With the increasing reliance on digital platforms for information and services, be sure that everyone can access such information, including those with disabilities.
How to ensure your medical website is ADA-compliant
To check and ensure that your website is ADA-compliant, consider the following:
Start by conducting an accessibility audit. An accessibility audit is a comprehensive review of your website's design and content to identify any issues. You can hire a website accessibility consultant or use automated accessibility testing tools like WAVE, Axe, or Lighthouse to perform an audit.
Next, familiarize yourself with the ADA compliance guidelines and ensure your website adheres to them. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 provide detailed instructions to make websites accessible to people with disabilities.
Consider asking patients with disabilities to test your website and provide feedback on its accessibility. These patients can provide valuable insights into how users with disabilities navigate and use your website.
Look at the font size of your content. About 8.1 million individuals in the U.S. have vision impairments. They may rely on screen readers or magnifiers to access your website's content. To ensure that your site is accessible to those with vision impairments, you can resize the text up to 200% without using assistive technology.
Approximately 15% of Americans, myself included, have some degree of hearing loss. To make your website's video content accessible to patients who have auditory issues, provide closed captions that display the spoken words on your videos. When adding captions, ensure they appear at the bottom of the screen rather than obscure visual features.
For patients with fine motor impairments, navigating a website using a keyboard can be easier than using a mouse. To make your site navigable by keyboard, ensure that users can jump between mouse or keyboard using the Tab, Enter, and Arrow keys.
Bottom Line: Making your website ADA-compliant can be challenging, thought-provoking, and time-consuming. This is not a job for a high school student who builds a templated website or one of the younger associates who is computer savvy. I recommend securing the advice of website design experts specializing in ADA compliance. This is the best way to see that your website is continually up-to-date and complies with the ever-evolving ADA regulations and guidelines.
I am curious would any readers of this blog continue to provide care for the patient described at the beginning of this blog after the patient paid the delinquent co-pays? I can be reached at doctorwhiz@gmail.com.
Neil Baum, MD, a Professor of Clinical Urology at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. Dr. Baum is the author of several books, including the best-selling book, Marketing Your Medical Practice-Ethically, Effectively, and Economically, which has sold over 225,000 copies and has been translated into Spanish.
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