Need Help with Section 1557 Compliance?
At Practis, we’re getting many questions on this and are here to help. Here are a few tips on what Section 1557 is, what you need to do to get your website in compliance and a few tools to help with the process.
To comply with the new Section 1557 requirement, all covered entities must post a Notice of Nondiscrimination to their website. This document should include information for patients with disabilities and with limited English proficiency (LEP) about the right to receive communication assistance. Using short taglines for the top 15 languages spoken of their state, covered entities also need to post information about the availability of free language assistance services.
To assist in this effort, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) prepared a sample Notice of Nondiscrimination that medical and dental practices, hospitals and other healthcare entities can use for their website. In addition, OCR provides sample taglines translated for each language instance needed.
Top 15 Languages Spoken by State
The challenge for many groups is to determine what are the top 15 languages spoken in their state. There are a few reputable places online that will provide you with this helpful information.
US Census Bureau
Modern Language Association
MLA Language Map – uses aggregated data from the 2006–10 American Community Survey to display languages commonly spoken by state in the US.
How to Post Section 1557 Information to Your Website
We are suggesting that you should:
- Add a new page to your site and post your Notice of Nondiscrimination
- In that new page, you will also want to identify the top 15 languages spoken in your state and then add the associated language specific taglines.
- Using the sample notice provided by DHHS, update with your practice name, phone number, and for covered entities with 15 or more employees, a compliance coordinator.
- Once your page is added, link to this page from the footer of your website. We would also recommend that you add a link to your policies page.