An ophthalmologist in America is suing a medical group for age discrimination because it requires a cognition assessment for those aged 70 and older.
Dr Lylas Mogk, who is 84, filed the suit in September against Henry Ford Health and Henry Ford Medical Group in Michigan, where she has worked since 1995, and where she is the founder and immediate past director of the Henry Ford Centre for Vision Rehabilitation and Research.
However, reports CBS News, as a member of the Henry Ford Medical Group, she is subject to its Senior and Bioscientific Staff Fitness for Duty Policy, adopted in 2017.
In accordance with the policy, once they reach 70, staff must undergo a screening assessment, based solely on age, for cognition.
The assessment must then be repeated once a member reaches 75, and then be repeated annually. Then, if further evaluation is required, the member will have a full Fitness for Duty Evaluation by an independent assessor.
In addition, if a member fails to comply with the age-based screening assessment, he or she will voluntarily resign or be terminated.
Mogk was required to take the assessment in 2018 based on her age.
The lawsuit claims the assessment deprives these members of employment opportunities or affects their employment status because of their age and that the medical group limited, segregated or classified employees in a way that would adversely affect their employment status.
It wants the court to stop the implementation of the cognition assessment and award Mogk and the other plaintiffs back pay/damages for lost earnings, with interest, including liquidated damages for any compensation lost by them as a result of the assessment.
Mogk is alleging that the mandatory cognitive test violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and two Michigan laws.
Medscape reports that the lawsuit follows a widely watched 2020 case in which the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued Yale New Haven Hospital, the teaching hospital of the Yale School of Medicine, for age discrimination. According to the lawsuit, the hospital illegally required neuropsychological and eye examinations of physicians aged 70 or older who sought to gain or renew staff privileges.
The number of practising physicians in their 70s and beyond is rising. A 2021 report found that 12% of US licensed physicians in 2020 were at least 70-years-old, up from 9% in 2010 and an increase from 75 627 to 120 510. The percentage of doctors aged 60-69 grew to 19% from 16% in 2010.
The number of health systems requiring testing of older physicians isn’t known, although various reports suggest at least a dozen have had mandates.
While there’s evidence that physician performance declines with age, age-based cognitive testing can run afoul of federal and state laws against age discrimination, said Sharona Hoffman, professor of law and bioethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
US federal law prohibits age-related restrictions on employment but allows exceptions in areas like public safety, said Hoffman, who’s written about age discrimination and testing requirements. Pilots, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and air controllers, for example, can be forced to retire at specific ages.
It’s not clear how many physicians took the cognitive tests required by Henry Ford Medical Group.
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