Kaiser Health Plan to Face New Hearing on Disability Bias Claims

A proposed class of hearing-disabled people is getting a second chance at a lawsuit accusing Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Washington of violating the Affordable Care Act’s antidiscrimination section by excluding coverage for most hearing loss treatment, the Ninth Circuit said Tuesday.

The named plaintiffs, Andrea Schmitt and Elizabeth Mohundro, may file an amended complaint to expand on their claim that the plan’s exclusion of coverage for treatments other than cochlear implants discriminates against hearing-disabled people based on a theory of proxy discrimination or some other theory, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said.

The ACA, under ...