March 25, 1994



Senator Mark Hatfield
711 Hart
Senate Office Building
Washington D.C. 20510


Dear Senator Hatfield:

I am writing to protest a rather blatant example of reverse
discrimination that comes about as a result of what I think is called 
the Americans With Disabilities Act. For your interest, I am 
enclosing two billing statements of one of my deaf patients. Up until
the time of the above-mentioned act, I always dealt with my deaf 
patients by taking whatever time was needed to communicate with them,
through writing, when an office communication was necessary, and they
did not bring someone to act as an intermediary interpreter. In spite
of the fact that it took more time, I never billed extra for the
additional time, nor did I complain about having to write my notes.
Under the Disabilities Act, I am now required to provide, at my 
expense, an interpreter when I see such a patient if they request. If
you look at the billings, you will see that I saw this patient and my
total bill for evaluating him for his problem and beginning treatment
was $34.85. You will also note that I subsequently received a bill
from the interpreter, to me, for $40.00. Hence, without even taking
into account such things as my overhead and lost time, you can see
that I have gone $5.15 in the hole on such an exchange. To me, this
seems somewhat analogous to someone walking into a grocery store
loading up their basket, and then walking out the door stopping only
long enough to ask the owner of the store to give them a tip on the
way out. I believe that there is a term that covers forcing someone
to work at either no gain or a loss to them personally, and that term
is slavery.

I don't know what you personally can do about this injustice.
However, I am sure that this type of legislation is not going to do
anything to inspire physicians to take on the care of people with
disabilities. I look forward to hearing your comments.


Sincerely yours,

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