Baltimore, Maryland (April 25, 2018): The National Federation of the Blind and three blind individuals represented by the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) and the law firms of Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP, and Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, P.C. have reached an agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) ensuring that the federal agency will distribute information about Medicare in more accessible formats going forward. Options include large print, Braille, audio, and electronic formats. The settlement resolves around a 2016 lawsuit that alleged CMS discriminated against blind beneficiaries by failing to provide meaningful and equal access to Medicare information in accessible formats.
Under the agreement, CMS will:
- Provide accessible, fillable forms for use by beneficiaries on Medicare.gov.
- Issue “Best Practices on Accessibility” to Medicare Health and Drug Plans.
- Extend the time in which a beneficiary must answer time-sensitive communications by the number of days it takes CMS to process the beneficiary’s request for information in an accessible format.
- Develop a plan to promote the availability of accessible materials to Medicare beneficiaries.
The agreement prohibits CMS from making any changes that would diminish access to Medicare information for blind individuals. Procedural changes including training employees on compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, implementing testing requirements to ensure that information posted on Medicare.gov is accessible to blind people, providing CMS’s most popular publications in accessible eBook formats at Medicare.gov, and establishing a Customer Accessibility Resource Staff to coordinate and support CMS’s accessible Medicare communications are already underway.
"The Medicare benefits a person receives are only as good as the access they have to them,” said Silvia Yee, senior staff attorney for the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. “Without equal access to vital Medicare information, people with visual disabilities not only face greater difficulty getting their health care needs met, they also run a higher risk of losing services and supports altogether when they can’t properly access details about Medicare plan benefits, review services provided, or confirm how much those services will cost. DREDF applauds this necessary step forward by CMS in providing Americans who have visual disabilities—including thousands of aging Medicare beneficiaries—access to necessary information that non-disabled people get to take for granted."
“Thousands of blind and low-vision people depend on Medicare benefits and must be able to apply for, understand, and manage those benefits independently,” said Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind. “This agreement will ensure that blind Medicare beneficiaries have equal access to critical and often time-sensitive information about their individual benefits and this vital program.”
The Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) and the law firms of Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP, and Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, P.C. represented the plaintiffs.
About the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF): Founded in 1979, DREDF is a leading national civil rights law and policy center directed by individuals with disabilities and parents who have children with disabilities that works to advance the civil and human rights of people with disabilities through legal advocacy, training, education, and public policy and legislative development. Learn more about DREDF’s work at dredf.org
About the National Federation of the Blind: The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), headquartered in Baltimore, is the oldest and largest nationwide organization of blind Americans. Founded in 1940, the NFB consists of affiliates, chapters, and divisions in the fifty states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico. The NFB defends the rights of blind people of all ages and provides information and support to families with blind children, older Americans who are losing vision, and more. We believe in the hopes and dreams of blind people and work together to transform them into reality. Learn more about our many programs and initiatives at www.nfb.org.
DOWNLOAD THE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT (PDF) →
CONTACT:
Lawrence Carter-Long
Director of Communications
Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund
T: 510-644-2555 x5256
Email: LCarterLong@dredf.org
CONTACT:
Chris Danielsen
Director of Public Relations
National Federation of the Blind
T: (410) 659-9314, extension 2330
C: (410) 262-1281 (Cell)
Email: cdanielsen@nfb.org