Home Health & Hospice Week

A New Jersey home care agency has settled charges of discrimination against a patient with HIV. Comfort Hands Home Healthcare in Marlton refused services to a potential client due to her HIV-positive status, the HHS Office for Civil Rights says in a release.

In addition to paying the woman $9,000, Comfort Hands has agreed to implement a non-discrimination policy and train staff on the policy, OCR says.

“The HHS Office for Civil Rights has a long history of taking enforcement actions to protect the rights of people with disabilities, including those with HIV,” OCR Director Melanie Fontes Rainer says in the release. The “important settlement tangibly contributes to our efforts to ensure nondiscrimination in HHS-funded services. It also advances our newly reinvigorated Olmstead Initiative by removing discriminatory barriers to ensure individuals with disabilities can be served in their own homes and communities.”