PAIR

Our PAIR program serves people with disabilities who are not eligible for assistance from our other programs. We work to ensure that they are free from discrimination in housing, employment, education, and access to public accommodations and that they are included in emergency preparedness initiatives.

New York 2015 Ventilator Allocation Guidelines

DRNY and the Civil Rights and Disability Justice Clinic at New York Law School Legal Services, Inc. appealed a decision dismissing the class action lawsuit filed against the Governor of New York State and the Commissioner of Health challenging the New York State Department of Health’s Ventilator Allocation Guidelines.

The COVID-19 pandemic shined a light on the grossly inadequate guidance New York Department of Health (DOH) has to prevent the discriminatory rationing of health care to people with disabilities. Although several states across the country have amended similar plans, known as crisis standards of care, the New York 2015 Ventilator Allocation Guidelines have not been revised. These guidelines can be used to prevent people with disabilities from obtaining ventilators simply because they have underlying conditions. Further, they can allow for hospitals to reallocate the personal ventilators of chronic ventilator users to others deemed more likely to survive.

DRNY seeks to have the District Court direct the DOH to issue new Ventilator Allocation Guidelines. Ones that explicitly prohibit the reallocation of personal ventilators from chronic ventilator users to other individuals.

The pandemic continues to affect our state and country. Hospitals and other medical facilities nationwide are actively making difficult decisions about how to ration care. As a result, they need clear guidance that preventing people with disabilities from attaining and maintaining ventilators would not only be discriminatory and illegal but would also have potentially fatal consequences for the disability community.