DaVita has agreed to pay $175,000 after federal officials determined that a deaf patient was not provided with a qualified American Sign Language interpreter during years of treatment at one of the company's dialysis centers in Lexington, Kentucky. The settlement includes $125,000 for the patient and a $50,000 civil penalty, along with a set of policy changes DaVita must now carry out at its Lexington facility.
The agreement was reached by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky, which worked with DaVita Inc. treatment centers to resolve the Americans with Disabilities Act complaint, according to WKYT. The underlying complaint alleged that the patient went without a qualified interpreter during many years of treatment at the Lexington dialysis center that DaVita operates, per the station's reporting. As reported by FOX 56 News, the settlement followed an investigation into an alleged violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act at the facility, and that investigation substantiated the patient's claims.
Neither outlet identified the patient, specified the exact facility by name, or detailed how many treatment sessions were affected, and no DaVita statement on the matter has been made public.
What DaVita Must Change Going Forward
Beyond the monetary payments, the settlement requires DaVita to overhaul how it handles communication with patients who are deaf or hard of hearing. The company must revise its policies and practices related to effective communication and securing qualified interpreters, provide staff training on those policies, report any future complaints, and cooperate with the U.S. Attorney's Office to ensure ongoing compliance, the same account notes.
Those requirements echo standards laid out under Title III of the ADA, which prohibits disability discrimination in places of public accommodation, including health care facilities, and requires appropriate auxiliary aids and services whenever needed for effective communication, according to ADA.gov. Acceptable forms of communication assistance can include a qualified sign-language interpreter, an oral or cued-speech interpreter, a tactile interpreter, a qualified notetaker, real-time captioning, or written materials, per the same federal guidance.
Federal guidance also makes clear that hospital staff with only limited familiarity with sign language are not meant to serve as substitutes for a qualified interpreter except briefly in emergencies, according to an ADA.gov business brief on hospital settings.
Part of a Broader Federal Push
The Lexington case fits into a pattern of federal enforcement around interpreter access in health care settings. The Department of Justice's Barrier-Free Health Care Initiative had settled 16 cases involving interpreting services for deaf hospital patients since 2011, according to STAT. That same reporting noted that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has ruled patients can sue over allegedly ineffective communication even when there was no medically adverse outcome.
Similar settlements have surfaced elsewhere in recent years. A December 2023 agreement required Kent Hospital to adopt new ADA policies on effective communication and interpreter access, train staff, report future complaints, and cooperate with federal officials, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2021, a settlement involving Concentra facilities nationwide resolved a complaint that the company failed to provide effective communication to a patient under Title III of the ADA, per a separate Justice Department announcement.
An earlier federal matter against Davis Hospital and Medical Center alleged a failure or refusal to provide a qualified sign-language interpreter to deaf patients who had requested one, according to a Justice Department settlement agreement from that case.
Details that remain unverified in the Lexington matter include the identity of the patient, the exact dialysis facility involved, the dates the complaint was filed and resolved, and whether DaVita admitted any liability as part of the agreement. What is confirmed is that DaVita must now update its policies, train staff on providing qualified interpreters, and report any future complaints as it works with federal officials to ensure compliance.
