(a) Discrimination prohibited. No qualified individual with a disability shall, on the basis of disability, be subjected to discrimination in medical treatment under any program or activity that receives Federal financial assistance, including in the allocation or withdrawal of any good, benefit, or service.

(b) Specific prohibitions. The general prohibition in paragraph (a) of this section includes the following specific prohibitions:

(1) Denial of medical treatment. A recipient may not deny or limit medical treatment to a qualified individual with a disability when the denial is based on:

(i) Bias or stereotypes about a patient's disability;

(ii) Judgments that the individual will be a burden on others due to their disability, including, but not limited to caregivers, family, or society; or

(iii) A belief that the life of a person with a disability has lesser value than the life of a person without a disability, or that life with a disability is not worth living.

(2) Denial of treatment for a separate symptom or condition. Where a qualified individual with a disability or their authorized representative seeks or consents to treatment for a separately diagnosable symptom or medical condition (whether or not that symptom or condition is a disability under this part or is causally connected to the individual's underlying disability), a recipient may not deny or limit clinically appropriate treatment if it would be offered to a similarly situated individual without an underlying disability.

(3) Provision of medical treatment. A recipient may not, on the basis of disability, provide a medical treatment to an individual with a disability where it would not provide the same treatment to an individual without a disability, unless the disability impacts the effectiveness, or ease of administration of the treatment itself, or has a medical effect on the condition to which the treatment is directed.

(c) Construction—(1) Professional judgment in treatment. (i) Nothing in this section requires the provision of medical treatment where the recipient has a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for denying or limiting that service or where the disability renders the individual not qualified for the treatment.

(ii) Circumstances in which the recipient has a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for denying or limiting a service or where the disability renders the individual not qualified for the treatment may include circumstances in which the recipient typically declines to provide the treatment to any individual, or reasonably determines based on current medical knowledge or the best available objective evidence that such medical treatment is not clinically appropriate for a particular individual. The criteria in paragraphs (b)(1)(i) through (iii) of this section are not a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for denying or limiting medical treatment and may not be a basis for a determination that an individual is not qualified for the treatment, or that a treatment is not clinically appropriate for a particular individual.

(2) Consent. (i) Nothing in this section requires a recipient to provide medical treatment to an individual where the individual, or their authorized representative, does not consent to that treatment.

(ii) Nothing in this section allows a recipient to discriminate against a qualified individual with a disability on the basis of disability in seeking to obtain consent from an individual or their authorized representative for the recipient to provide, withhold, or withdraw treatment.

(3) Providing information. Nothing in this section precludes a provider from providing an individual with a disability or their authorized representative with information regarding the implications of different courses of treatment based on current medical knowledge or the best available objective evidence.

[89 FR 40188, May 9, 2024]