Yale New Haven Hospital, the teaching hospital of the Yale School of Medicine, violated federal law by adopting and implementing a discriminatory “Late Career Practitioner Policy,” the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the policy requires any individual aged 70 and older who applies for or seeks to renew staff privileges at the hospital to take both neuropsychological and eye medical examinations. Individuals and employees younger than age 70 are not subject to these requirements. The EEOC said that those subject to the policy are required to be tested solely because of their age, without any suspicion that their neuropsychological ability may have declined. By subjecting only these older hospital applicants and employees to the policy, the hospital violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the EEOC said. That policy also violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the EEOC also charged, specifically its prohibition against subjecting employees to medical examinations that are not job-related and consistent with business necessity.
