Section 1557 of the ACA, Affordable Care Act

We have had a lot of questions recently from clients in the Healthcare Profession regarding Section 1557 of the ACA, so we decided to share what we know from other clients implementing notices to comply with this section. Enforced by the Department of HHS, Health and Human Services with the final ruling back in March of 2016. Section 1557 has mainly been enforced on the Insurance Providers, however, it is enforceable on any provider being funded in part by government programs such as Medicare or Medicaid. Section 1557 states that a facility must provide a "Non Discrimination Notice" to patients. It should include verbiage stating your facilities policy not to discriminate based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. It should include the name of the facilities Compliance Officer / contact information and Language Assistance Services/ contact information. The Non Discrimination Notice should also include taglines (How to request Language Services in each language) for each language required for the state the facility is geographically located. You can access these 15 languages required for each state at the Health and Human Services website: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/resources-for-covered-entities-top-15-languages-list.pdf . Notices should be posted within your facility, on your website, within statements, and any other "significant publications".