Med Mal News

A New Jersey jury says a doctor must pay a deaf patient $400,000 for refusing to hire an American Sign Language interpreter for her visits, thereby violating her rights under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act and New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination. The federal anti-discrimination statute applies to hospitals and doctors that receive federal funding, including those whose patients are covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

The doctor in question, rheumatologist Robert Fogari, saw the complaining deaf patient for treatment of lupus approximately 20 times, over a 20-month period. When the patient asked Dr. Fogari to hire a sign language interpreter so that she could understand what he wanted to tell her, he declined, citing the fact that it would have cost him between $150 and $200 per visit to pay such an interpreter. (The doctor was paid only $49 per visit by the patient's insurer.) Dr. Fogari said that he felt he communicated adequately with the patient through written communications with her civil-union partner and verbal communication with the couple's 9-year-old daughter. The patient, however, said she was not made fully aware of what her treatment entailed or of what risks she was exposing herself to. After she complained several times to the doctor, Dr. Fogari told the patient she should go see another physician. The jury found that this amounted to retaliation against the patient for requesting that her rights be respected; half of the $400,000 verdict was awarded as punitive damages. Dr. Fogari's malpractice insurance carrier reportedly declined to defend its insured or to cover the verdict because the case did not involve a question of quality of care.