NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Federal officials announced Friday that they have reached a resolution with Tennessee over complaints filed by disability advocates who were concerned that people with disabilities could be denied life-saving treatment like ventilators because of the coronavirus crisis.
Tennessee’s disability advocates and their national counterparts raised the issue in the state and at the federal level in March after discovering a 2016 state document called
Guidelines for the Ethical Allocation of Scarce Resources, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.
They alleged that the Tennessee document would allow health care providers to exclude people with disabilities from critical care, including ventilators, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
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Gov. Bill Lee’s administration, which inherited the document, was taken by surprise, and Lee said his administration did not intend to rely on it or implement it. On Friday, officials announced that Tennessee had agreed to update its crisis medical standards of care to ensure the state does not discriminate against people based on disability or age by rationing their care.
The complaint against Tennessee was brought by a coalition of national disability advocates, including The Arc and the Center for Public Representation, together with Tennessee advocates led by Disability Rights Tennessee and the Civil Rights Enforcement and Education Center.
The Tennessee agreement is the fourth such corona-virus-era pact struck with a state after complaints filed by disability advocacy groups, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights said.
“We commend Tennessee for updating its policies to ensure that hospitals do not deny life-saving care during a crisis based on stereotypes about disabilities or other impermissible factors,” the federal office’s director, Roger Severino, said in a statement. “Our civil rights laws reflect the principle that we are all created with equal dignity and worth.”