United States v. Sea Mar Community Health Centers

What this case is about

This is a 2025 DOJ enforcement settlement with Sea Mar Community Health Centers, a federally qualified health center (FQHC) network operating across Washington state. DOJ found accessibility failures at Sea Mar's dental and medical clinics: wheelchair users couldn't access exam rooms or treatment areas; deaf patients weren't consistently provided sign-language interpreters or other auxiliary aids; accessible dental chairs and equipment weren't available or weren't maintained; communication accommodations weren't consistently offered. The settlement requires Sea Mar to audit and remediate physical access at all locations; provide qualified ASL interpreters for deaf patients at no charge; procure and maintain accessible dental and medical equipment; train staff; and provide ongoing reporting to DOJ. The case is in compliance phase. If you're a Sea Mar patient (current or past) and you've encountered accessibility barriers, you can report it.

Who may qualify

The settlement protects patients with disabilities at Sea Mar Community Health Centers in Washington state. You can report a problem if: - You're a Sea Mar patient (current or past). - You have a disability. - You encountered a barrier: couldn't access the building or exam room, no ASL interpreter provided when needed, no accessible dental chair available, communication accommodations refused, etc. This is Sea Mar-specific. The same federal framework (ADA Title III + Section 504 + Section 1557 for FQHCs) applies to other providers.

What helps your case

Documentation: Sea Mar visit records, appointment confirmations, communications regarding accommodation requests, staff identification, contemporaneous notes of accommodation refusals, medical records establishing the qualifying disability and the accommodation need.

How to document what happened

Documentation strategy: capture written accommodation-refusal language; preserve appointment records and any patient-portal communications; document on-site barriers with photographs where appropriate; preserve all related medical records; preserve documentation of any care actually delivered (or not) and the consequences.

What if you don’t have documentation?

Reports may proceed without contemporaneous records. Channels: DOJ Civil Rights Division administrative complaint; HHS OCR (Section 504 + Section 1557, particularly relevant for FQHC); Disability Rights Washington (state P&A); Washington State Human Rights Commission.

What this case doesn’t cover

Outside scope: other healthcare providers (separate Title III/§ 504 enforcement); Sea Mar non-clinical programs; insurance/billing disputes; quality-of-care claims (state medical licensing boards, malpractice frameworks).

Legal theory

ADA Title III + Section 504

Named defendants

• Sea Mar Community Health Centers

Case facts

Type

Enforcement action

Affected states

WA

Court

U.S. Department of Justice administrative settlement

Filed

2025-04-07

Who to contact

Nobody is running an intake for this one. You can still report what happened.

• Government agency

  U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division

  Takes complaints about businesses open to the public and about state and local government. It investigates and enforces, but it does not represent individuals and cannot advise you on your own claim. If the service takes federal funding, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights also takes these.

  Phone 800-514-0301

  TTY 833-610-1264

  civilrights.justice.gov/report

  Filing a complaint is not the same as having a lawyer, and it does not pause any legal deadlines. If you may want to bring a case, talk to an attorney about your dates as well as filing.

  Every state has one. They are free, they take intake directly, and unlike a federal agency they can represent you. Find yours

Key dates

Status

Compliance phase, ongoing monitoring

Settlement

April 2025