Today, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced the issuance of a Letter of Finding and Notice of Violation against the San Juan Capestrano Hospital, following a thorough investigation, for violating disability civil rights laws when it failed to provide a patient with a sign language interpreter, under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504) and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (Section 1557), laws which prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability. OCR received a complaint alleging the Hospital discriminated against a patient on the basis of disability by failing to provide a sign language interpreter for a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation at the Hospital, which denied the patient an equal opportunity to participate in or benefit from the Hospital’s programs and services because of the disability.
