Course Curriculum

This webinar will discuss a civil rights law applicable to all health care providers that addresses nondiscrimination, required signs and notices, interpreters, and more under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. This program will discuss case law regarding several issues important to hospitals and the recent federal register with changes made by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to comply with these updates. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) final changes to the hospital Conditions of Participation, which discuss this law under the Hospital Improvement Rule, will also be addressed.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this session, participants should be able to:
• Explain that hospitals are required to post a sign regarding nondiscrimination.
• Describe that the hospital must have a sign with 15 taglines, so patients are aware they are entitled to an interpreter at no cost.
• Recall that the Office of Civil Rights is the main enforcer of Section 1557.
• Discuss that the hospital must have a person in charge to work with patients who file a grievance related to nondiscrimination.

Speaker Bio

Fred Fehlinger is an RN consultant for survey preparedness, on-site support and remediation for hospitals, ambulatory health care, critical access hospitals, long-term care and addiction/ substance use programs under TJC, CMS, DNV and specific state programs.

Fehlinger has expertise in quality, patient safety, infection control, case management, environment of care, emergency preparedness, medical staff, provision of care, patients’ rights, organizational leadership, and process improvement.

In his previous hospital positions, he worked in senior leadership as a quality officer, market chief quality officer, regional director of survey readiness/quality, and director of quality and risk management for Community Health Systems.

This speaker has no real or perceived conflicts of interest that relate to this presentation.