An 84-year-old ophthalmologist has filed a class-action lawsuit against Henry Ford Health and its medical group practice over a policy requiring older practitioners to undergo a cognition screen in order to keep their position.
The complaint, filed late September with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, alleges that the organizations are discriminating against its employees solely on the basis of their age.
The policy, wrote the plaintiff, goes against the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, as well as other Michigan laws.
The policy in question was enacted by the Henry Ford Medical Group’s board of directors in July 2017 and requires all group members undergo a screening assessment for cognition that “is solely based on age,” according to a policy document cited in the complaint. The evaluation is repeated annually once a group member reaches the age of 75, according to the suit.
“If further evaluation is required, the HFMG member will be required to have a full Fitness for Duty Evaluation by an Independent Assessor,” the plaintiff’s counsel wrote in the suit. “The Medical Staff Office will communicate to Chair when further testing is required. If an HFMG member fails to comply with the age-based screening requirement, the employee will voluntarily resign or be terminated.”
The plaintiff, Lylas Mogk, M.D., has been with the health system since 1995 and founded its Henry Ford Center for Vision Rehabilitation & Research. She, along with other class members, was required to undergo the assessments starting in 2017 and every year thereafter, which the lawsuit noted includes “a prohibited acquisition of genetic information.”
Mogk is petitioning the court to declare the policy unlawful and enjoin the organizations from continuing to implement it. She also seeks payments to her and other class members for any lost compensation resulting from the policy, plus legal fees.
The ophthalmologist’s lawsuit lands about three and a half years after a similar case was brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Yale New Haven Hospital. Its “Late Care Practitioner Policy” required neuropsychological and eye medical examinations for staff aged 70 years and older “solely because of their age, without any suspicion that their neuropsychological ability may have declined,” EEOC said.
That litigation, brought after the commission had attempted a pre-litigation settlement, is still ongoing.