Home Health & Hospice Week

Medicare regulations aren't the only ones you have to worry about violating. Are you sure your managers understand what the Americans with Disability Act allows -- and what it doesn't -- when it comes to terminating employees with health conditions?

One multi-state chain has learned that lesson the hard way. Hamilton, Ohio-based home care chain Personal Touch Home Care agreed to pay $35,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the EEOC announced back in April. Personal Touch also agreed to provide training on disability discrimination to its managers and supervisors on southwest Ohio. Personal Touch has more than 50 locations in 13 states, it says on its website.

The EEOC accused Personal Touch of firing employee Pamula Calfee because of her disabilities: renal failure, COPD and asthma, according to an EEOC release. Calfee had worked for Personal Touch since 2000 and "had no problems performing her job even with her disabilities," the EEOC said when it filed the suit back in January.

"Treating an employee badly based on a physical impairment violates the very core of the ADA, and the EEOC will continue to fight for the rights of disability discrimination victims," Laurie Young, regional attorney for the EEOC's Indiana-polis District Office, says in the release.