Song Xie left a Houston hospital a few days after Christmas 2015. He had a stroke less than a week later caused, he says, by inadequate discharge instructions.
The instructions were written in English—a language the son providing Song Xie’s post-discharge care couldn’t read, he says. Song Xie sued Memorial Hermann Health System in a Texas state court, saying the hospital violated the Affordable Care Act’s prohibition on national origin discrimination when it didn’t translate the instructions into the son’s native language.
Providers should be prepared for this new type of litigation, which could cost them hundreds of thousands ...