ADA Can Hurt Those It Is Supposed to Help, Blog Concludes

The Americans With Disabilities Act is squeezing physicians who must pay for interpreters for deaf patients, causing some doctors to pass along rather than treat such patients.

That’s what one physician told the New York Times Magazine. Andrew Brooks, a Los Angeles orthopedic surgeon, had to pay $120 an hour to an interpreter who had a two-hour minimum when he evaluated a deaf patient, yet her insurer paid only $58 for the doctor visit.

“This kind of patient will end up getting passed on and passed on, getting the runaround, not understanding why she’s not getting good care,” Brooks told Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, the two economists who write the Times' Freakonomics blog.

Just as the ADA discourages physicians from treating deaf patients, it has also discouraged employers from hiring disabled employees, according to one study. After the law was enacted in 1992, it led to a sharp drop in employment of the disabled because of fears of lawsuits, the blog says.

“If there is any law more powerful than the ones constructed in a place like Washington,” the blog concludes, “it is the law of unintended consequences.”

Updated at 4:55 p.m. CT to indicate that this story appeared in New York Times Magazine.