Washington Post: Several D.C. Area Hospitals Do Not Have Nondiscrimination Policies for Gays

Yesterday I noted that at least one Virginia based health insurance provider, Optima Health, does not allow small business health plans to offer employees of adding their same sex partners to their health plan - even though the state of Virginia allows such coverage. In addition, the majority of hospitals - some in Virginia - continue to lack nondiscrimination policies for gays. Obviously, this is important information to know when one is selecting a hospital for elective medical care so that such hospitals can be avoided. It can become potentially a huge problem if one is transported on an emergency basis to one of these facilities. Frankly, I am fed up with being treated as a second class citizen or even less than fully human by discriminatory policies that are hostile to LGBT citizens. As I have argued before, the LGBT community needs to use its purchasing power and boycott organizations that do not offer 100% equality to LGBT patients and businesses that seek to provide health coverage to the partners of their employees. Here are highlights from the Washington Post story on this issue:
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A study by a prominent gay rights organization found that nearly half of 17 Washington area hospitals do not explicitly include "sexual orientation" or "gender identity" in their patients' bills of rights or nondiscrimination policies.
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Eight Washington area hospitals, the report says, do not include such language. They are Sibley Memorial, Howard University and Providence hospitals in the District; Shady Grove Adventist Hospital and Washington Adventist Hospital in Montgomery County; Reston Hospital Center and Virginia Hospital Center in Northern Virginia; and Doctors Community Hospital in Prince George's County.
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There is evidence that gay men and lesbians delay seeking care because of a perception of discrimination, Sullivan said. "When [health-care facilities] are inclusive, people seek health care in a timely manner, and to us, that's just good health-care policy," he said.
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The report released Monday came at the same time as an announcement by Kaiser Permanente -- one of the nation's largest not-for-profit health providers -- that it has updated its patients' bill of rights to fully protect gay and lesbian patients and their families from discrimination.
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Those changes, which took effect in Kaiser Permanente's network of 36 hospitals in California, Oregon and Hawaii on Monday, make it the first large health network to have a fully inclusive nondiscrimination policy for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender patients, according to the HRC. A Kaiser spokeswoman said the organization hopes to implement the policy at its 431 medical office buildings across the country within the year.
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In April, Obama directed the Department of Health and Human Services to make rules that require all hospitals that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding -- nearly every hospital in the United States -- to protect the visitation and decision-making rights of gay men and lesbians.
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In January, the Joint Commission, which accredits and certifies health-care facilities, announced new patient standards that add language to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
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The group also reviewed a representative sample of 200 of the largest hospitals in all 50 states and found that 93 percent do not have fully inclusive policies for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgender people.