ADA Compliance for
Healthcare & Pharmacy
If you accept Medicare or Medicaid, your website must meet federal accessibility standards by May 2026 — or face enforcement.
$440K
MedStar Health consent decree
$125K
UNC Health settlement
May 2026
Federal compliance deadline
The risk to your business
You don't need to be a hospital system. Demand letters target dental offices, dermatology practices, and therapy clinics — any practice with a patient portal or online scheduling. The deadline applies to you too.
Why healthcare gets targeted
Patient portals hold protected health information that must be accessible — posting it isn't enough if a blind patient can't read it.
The DOJ is actively enforcing — MedStar, UNC Health, and Springfield were all hit with consent decrees.
Practices that accept Medicare/Medicaid have a hard federal deadline, not just lawsuit risk.
Biggest settlements in healthcare
9 documented cases · $570K+ disclosed
Healthcare
MedStar Health
$440,000 to compensate affected individuals; $0 civil penalt…
2024 · District of Maryland
Read the caseHealthcare
University of North Carolina Health Care System
$125,000 in damages to affected patients
2023 · Middle District of North Carolina
Read the caseHealthcare
Springfield Clinic
$5K
2024 · Central District of Illinois (via DOJ settlement without trial)
Read the caseEvery healthcare case we've documented
9 cases · $570K+ total disclosedMedStar Health
United States v. MedStar Health, Inc.
$440,000 to compensate affected individuals; $0 civil penalt…2024University of North Carolina Health Care System
Bone et al. v. University of North Carolina Health Care System
$125,000 in damages to affected patients2023Springfield Clinic
United States v. Springfield Clinic (DOJ Settlement Agreement)
$5K2024Springfield Clinic
United States v. Springfield Clinic (DJ 202-24-114)
2024Exact Care Pharmacy
McKenney et al. v. Exact Care Pharmacy, LLC
2023Nash Hospitals
Blind Patient v. Nash Hospitals, Inc.
2022HCA Holdings
Frazier v. HCA Holdings, Inc.
2017Tenet Healthcare Corporation
American Blind Community v. Tenet Healthcare Corporation
2016AccessiBe Ltd.
Tribeca Skin Care v. AccessiBe Ltd.
2024
What specifically to fix
The most common failure patterns for healthcare.
Patient portal must work end-to-end
Screen reader: blockedScheduling, records, prescriptions, and bill pay must all work with screen readers and keyboard.
Medical records can't be scanned PDFs
Documents: inaccessibleImage-only PDFs are invisible to blind patients — documents need a text layer.
Telehealth needs captions
Captions: missingVideo appointments must have live captions for deaf patients — your platform choice is your responsibility.
Prescription info must be accessible
Content: blockedDosing, drug interactions, and allergy info must be available in accessible formats on request.
The federal compliance deadline has passed
Your site should already be compliant. Find out if it is.