The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has revised section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which previously required health care providers to include nondiscrimination notices and taglines indicating the availability of language assistance services in all communication with their patients.

Effective August 18, 2020, a new amendment will take effect to repeal the old requirement. HHS has stated that the "requirement caused significant unanticipated expenses" caused by the confusion of what is considered significant communication. It was estimated that the dental profession has spent approximately $240 million to comply with this requirement.

The final rule on section 1557, originally implemented in 2016, applies to any heath care provider who received funds from the Department of Health and Human Services. Under the final rule, providers were obligated to include taglines in the top 15 non-English languages in their state with all significant communication. The taglines had to indicate that free language assistance services were available and include a notice of nondiscrimination.

To read the announcement about the revision of section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act and the reasons for it, please visit the HHS website. An executive summary of the revised final rule released on June 12, 2020, is available on the website of the Federal Register.