US Physicians' Knowledge About The Americans With Disabilities Act And Accommodation Of Patients With Disability

Abstract

More than thirty years since the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), people with disability continue to experience health care disparities. The ADA mandates that patients with disability receive reasonable accommodations. In our survey of 714 US physicians in outpatient practices, 35.8 percent reported knowing little or nothing about their legal responsibilities under the ADA, 71.2 percent answered incorrectly about who determines reasonable accommodations, 20.5 percent did not correctly identify who pays for these accommodations, and 68.4 felt that they were at risk for ADA lawsuits. Physicians who felt that lack of formal education or training was a moderate or large barrier to caring for patients with disability were more likely to report little or no knowledge of their responsibilities under the law and were more likely to believe that they were at risk for an ADA lawsuit. To achieve equitable care and social justice for patients with disability, considerable improvements are needed to educate physicians and make health care delivery systems more accessible and accommodating.

EXHIBIT 1

Physicians’ knowledge and beliefs regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 2019–2020. Source: Authors’ analysis of data from their survey, “Caring for Patients with Functional Limitations National Survey Funded by the NIH,” 2019–2020. Notes: The data reflect survey questions that asked physicians to rate how much they know about legal obligations under the ADA; indicate who is responsible for determining reasonable accommodations for patients with disability; who is financially responsible for accommodations; and how much they perceived their practices to be at risk of ADA lawsuits. All survey questions are included in Appendix Exhibit 9.