STAT NEWS – Two skilled nursing facilities in North Carolina reached a settlement this month that bars them from discriminating against people with a history of substance use — potentially setting a precedent for how long-term care facilities nationwide treat people with addiction.
Under the settlement, the facilities are to adopt new antidiscrimination admission policies and apply reasonable judgment to individual applicants, instead of automatically denying them based on past substance use.
The policies apply to people taking addiction medications like methadone and buprenorphine, as well as those who currently use illegal drugs; facilities are not required to bend their own rules regarding admitted patients’ substance use.
It is believed to be the first case in the U.S. to successfully challenge long-term care facilities’ systemic denials of admission to people with substance use disorders.
“The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits the denial of health services to people on the basis of current drug use,” said Rebekah Joab, an attorney with the New York-based Legal Action Center. “So somebody with the disability of substance use disorder has to be treated the same as anyone else.”
The lawsuit was brought jointly by the Legal Action Center, which advocates on behalf of people with addiction or who are incarcerated, and another nonprofit, Disability Rights North Carolina.
It was filed on behalf of an anonymous “John Doe” client who was denied admission to two facilities in Raleigh and Durham, N.C., respectively: Sunnybrook Rehabilitation Center and Treyburn Rehabilitation Center.
In an interview, Sara Harrington, an attorney with Disability Rights North Carolina, stressed that the settlement doesn’t require facilities to admit potentially disruptive patients.
Instead, she said, it requires them to treat all applicants equally and not automatically reject those with a history of substance use.
“We’re not saying that they need to condone [drug use] or let people break their rules,” Harrington said. “We’re just saying that people need a chance … ”
