News and Alerts

Today, in response to the first federal complaint challenging discriminatory hospital “no-visitor” policies, filed by CPR and partners last month, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services announced a resolution making clear that federal law requires hospitals and the state agencies overseeing them to modify policies to ensure patients with disabilities can safely access the in-person supports needed to benefit from medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We stand with protesters in communities across the country -- including in the Twin Cities, Atlanta, Louisville, Columbus, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, and Washington, D.C.-- demanding justice and accountability for the murder of George Floyd. The institutional racism that has long infected this country cannot stand. We need to do more as allies. We are listening. As disability lawyers fighting for change, we have a responsibility to change a system that has repeatedly failed to deliver justice for all. We commit to working to understand and address our own implicit bias, to address racism in our work, and to be better allies – to listen, to hear, and to act.

Keeping people out of nursing facilities is especially important now, with COVID-19 ravaging nursing facilities around the country, yet the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed weakening the Preadmission Screening and Resident Review (PASRR) rules designed to help keep people with mental illness or intellectual or developmental disabilities from being unnecessarily placed in Medicaid-funded nursing facilities and to help nursing facility residents transition back to the community. CPR submitted comments on May 18 opposing the proposed rule and created templates to help organizations and individuals submit comments opposing the rule.

On May 18, 2020, CPR and its co-counsel asked the full Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to grant a new hearing in the appeal of the District Court’s decision in Rosie D. v. Baker. On May 4, 2020, a panel of the First Circuit allowed the termination of all court monitoring and reporting obligations in the case, despite continuing federal Medicaid law violations.

Around the country, hospitals and other health care facilities have enacted strict no-visitor policies to contain the spread of COVID-19 that don't include exceptions for people with disabilities who need support from family members or staff to have equal access to medical treatment. To help combat the discrimination people with disabilities are facing as a result of these policies, CPR, together with CommunicationFirst, The Arc, Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Bazelon Center, and DREDF, has released Evaluation Framework for Hospital Visitor Policies.

Today CPR, along with 18 other national disability rights organizations, filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court defending the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which provides important protections for people with disabilities. In March, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in the case, formerly known as Texas v. US and now known as California v. Texas, which it will hear next term.

Keeping people out of nursing facilities is especially important now, with COVID-19 ravaging nursing facilities around the country. But right now, in the middle of this pandemic, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing a rule that would weaken PASRR, making it easier for people to be admitted to nursing facilities and harder for them to transition from these facilities back to the community. Comment by May 20 to oppose the proposed rule!

COVID-19 has affected all of us, but it has been particularly devastating for people with disabilities. In the face of these extraordinary challenges, CPR is committed to ensuring that the needs of people with disabilities are centered in the response to this pandemic. But we can’t do our work without your support! We’re participating in #GivingTuesdayNow, which supports the work of advocates like CPR during this crisis, and we need your help to spread the word!

CPR and partners filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (HHS OCR) today regarding the failure to provide people with disabilities with reasonable accommodations to hospital no-visitor policies in effect during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first OCR complaint filed regarding a state’s hospital visitor policies during this pandemic, and follows several other complaints filed by CPR and partners regarding states’ discriminatory medical rationing policies.

On April 24, 2020, the federal district court in Ball v. DeWine approved a comprehensive Settlement Agreement designed to increase access to integrated home and community-based services and provide individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities a meaningful, informed choice between Intermediate Care Facilities (ICFs) and community services.