EEOC Sues Yale Hospital Alleging Age/Disability Discrimination

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has sued Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) in federal court, charging that YNHH’s requirement that medical staff age 70 and older undergo cognitive testing violates federal anti-discrimination law.

The EEOC filed suit under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and Title I of the Civil Rights Act, to correct unlawful employment practices on the basis of age, to redress interference with rights protected under the ADA, to stop medical examinations in violation of the ADEA and ADA, and to provide appropriate relief to aggrieved employees and individuals who were adversely affected by such practices.

In the pleadings, the EEOC alleges that YNHH has adopted and implemented what it calls a “Late Career Practitioner Policy” (“the Policy”). The Policy requires any individual age 70 and older (“age 70+”) who applies for, or seeks to renew, medical staff privileges at YNHH to take both an ophthalmologic and a neuropsychological medical examination. The EEOC further claims that individuals and employees younger than age 70 are not subject to this requirement.

The EEOC argues that by subjecting only age 70+ applicants to, and age 70+ employees of, YNHH to the Policy, YNHH violates the ADEA. The EEOC further argues that by subjecting its employees to the Policy, YNHH violates the ADA’s prohibition against subjecting employees to medical examinations that are not job-related and consistent with business necessity.

The EEOC alleges that because YNHH medical staff privileges are a condition of employment as a clinical faculty member of the Yale School of Medicine and other local employers, the Policy interferes with the enjoyment of rights protected by the ADA of Yale School of Medicine employees and other local medical employees.

The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut (EEOC v. Yale New Haven Hospital, Civil Action No. 3:20-cv-00187). The EEOC seeks compensatory and punitive damages and injunctive relief, which includes the elimination of the Policy.

Mark D’Antonio, media relations for Yale New Haven Hospital, told OTW, “Yale New Haven Hospital’s late career practitioner policy is designed to protect our patients from potential harm while including safeguards to ensure that our physicians are treated fairly. The policy is modeled on similar standards in other industries and we are confident that no discrimination has occurred and will vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.”

YNHH is a 1,541-bed private, nonprofit teaching hospital located in New Haven, Connecticut. It is owned and operated by the Yale New Haven Health system. YNHH is the primary teaching hospital for Yale School of Medicine. “With two main campuses, Yale New Haven is the largest acute care provider in southern Connecticut and one of the Northeast’s major referral centers.”

According to the EEOC press release, “The EEOC’s New York District Office oversees New York, Northern New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination.”