Supporting Your Office Manager

QUESTION: Even if our hearing-impaired patients do not show up for an appointment, we have to pay a sign-language interpreter $150 per visit. Are we allowed to charge a deaf patient the fee for the interpreter if they do not show up for their appointment?

ANSWER: The practice cannot bill the patient for the cost of the interpreter, even if the patient does not show up, as this violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The practice can bill the patient for the standard no-show fee, but not the cost of the interpreter. If the physician has already attempted to collect from the patient, then the practice should also send a letter to the patient indicating that he or she was billed in error. Keep in mind that this is information only and should not be taken as legal advice.

QUESTION: The City of San Diego sent a notice informing our practice that all of the 20-minute loading parking spaces in front of our outpatient surgical suite will be converted to two-hour parking spaces. Are there any statutes that protect the surgical patients' loading spaces that we may cite in our appeal?

ANSWER: California's Disabled Persons Act is a disability-access law that prohibits both policies as well as structural impediments that deny disabled individuals full and fair access to public accommodations of all kinds, including medical facilities, hospitals, clinics, and physicians' offices. Also, federal law and the American Disabilities Act provide that a failure to "remove architectural barriers" in existing facilities as well as not complying with requirements when there is new construction or remodeling may invoke discrimination. For further information, consult CMA's ON-CALL document #0811, "Patient Access to Physician Offices/Facilities: Barrier Removal and New Construction" — available free to SDCMS-CMA members at cmanet.org.