508/Medicaid/ADA Accessibility Compliance

SECTION 508 REFRESH & DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY FOR MEDICAID SITES 

There are three separate government initiatives for web accessibility:

  1. Section 508 Refresh
  2. Medicaid/CHIP Managed Care Regulations (Digital Accessibility for Medicaid Sites)
  3. Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

 Both Section 508 Refresh and Digital Accessibility for Medicaid Sites apply to website accessibility for people with disabilities. The requirements make websites easy to use for people with disabilities which include visual, auditory, physical, and cognitive. They use assistive tools to navigate websites.

Each ruling comes from different government entities and applies to a different set of Magellan websites.

The regulations apply to member websites and portals.

SECTION 508

Introduction

Section 508 is a federal law mandating that all electronic and information technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by the federal government be accessible to people with disabilities. It applies to federal departments and agencies and their contractors.

Magellan was first asked to comply with the law in 2008 by one of our federal contracts. That has expanded to other federal customers and some non-federal customers who required compliance even though customer was not a federal agency. This law applies to member facing websites and portals.

As digital technology advanced, the requirements became outdated. The governance board has been talking about updating the rules for years but we believed it would be released in 2017. They finally did it in Jan 2017 and called it Section 508 Refresh. See Workplace post in Jan 2017 and the regulation announcement.

Requirements

The regulation requires compliance with WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA. See also WCAG 2.0 Quick reference.

Moving from Section 508 (original) to WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA is a significant upgrade.

Impacted Sites/Applications

MRX and other MHC sites may be included

  • Magellanassist including library, EAP referral, and other applications
  • Provider search
  • FOH and USPS landing pages
  • Magellanfindaprovider 
  • State of CA site 
  • MagellanMFLC – military
  • USarphp.org – military
  • Vendor sites may be impacted: CLC, Lifecare, Cafewell, Cobalt, Illume, Time Value, Survey Monkey
  • Vendor content: ADAM, Elsevier

Other areas impacted

  • Native mobile apps (the regulation is unclear how code for mobile apps are affected and how apps are verified for compliance)

Impacted Customers:

Federal accounts such as FOH, USPS, FAA, DONCEAP, etc.

Some MHS commercial accounts have requested (perhaps contractually required) Section 508 compliance such as BSC and SOC. 

PDF Documents

Many compliance violations occur with PDF files. For those PDF files that fail, we must go back to the original document and use these guidelines to regenerate the PDF. Then repost the compliant PDF.

DIGITAL ACCESSIBILITY FOR MEDICAID SITES

Introduction

Regarding the digital experience, the following was included as a Medicaid notice:

  1. Readily accessible means electronic information and services which comply with modern accessibility standards such as section 508 guidelines, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 AA and successor versions.
  2. Online Enrollee Materials -To the extent that the Managed Care Plan is using electronic and information technology to fulfill its obligations under this Contract, the Managed Care Plan shall comply with the electronic and information technology accessibility requirements under the federal civil rights laws including Section 504 and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

Requirements

The regulation requires compliance with WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA. See also WCAG 2.0 Quick reference. 

PDF Documents

Many compliance violations occur with PDF files. For those PDF files that fail, we must go back to the original document and use these guidelines to regenerate the PDF. Then repost the compliant PDF.

ADA TITLE III

Introduction

There is a growing trend towards lawsuits against companies such as Magellan demanding that they provide an accessible website under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The lawsuits have frequently been settled or have been favorable to the plaintiff, resulting in monetary damages and changes to the website in question.

Requirements

The lawsuits usually requires compliance with WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA. See also WCAG 2.0 Quick reference. 

PDF Documents

Many compliance violations occur with PDF files. For those PDF files that fail, we must go back to the original document and use these guidelines to regenerate the PDF. Then repost the compliant PDF.