The Barrier Free Healthcare Initiative Launched

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This is a short post about improving access for people with disabilities to hospitals. There is a new group working together on these issues. There is a new website about hospital access issues.

A group of disability rights lawyers and advocates has announced the creation of The Barrier Free Healthcare Initiative, a collaborative effort to support legal and policy initiatives aimed at eliminating the physical and programmatic barriers that people with disabilities face in obtaining healthcare. More information is available at the new website launched by the initiative.

The initiative was launched to coincide with the announcement of a landmark settlement with two Boston Hospitals designed to improve access to facilities, programs, services and information. Read more about the Boston hospital healthcare access initiative, spearheaded by Greater Boston Legal Services, the Boston Center for Independent Living, and Bay Area-based Disability Rights Advocates. The agreement with the Boston hospitals was reached using Structured Negotiations.

Access to healthcare information, technology, programs, services and facilities is an issue of critical importance to the disability community. Because of the need for an ongoing relationship between health care providers and individuals needing various aspects of accessibility, Structured Negotiations is particularly suited for resolving healthcare access issues. The Law Office of Lainey Feingold has used Structured Negotiations to reach a comprehensive health care access agreement with UCSF Medical Center, to address the failure to maintain accessible restrooms in a medical building, and to reverse an insurance company decision to deny long term care insurance to a blind consumer. If you are a person with a visual impairment or other disability who has experienced barriers to healthcare and think that Structured Negotiations may be useful to you, please Contact us.