HIV Bias Complaint Forces Orthopedic Center to Update Policies

A Florida orthopedic practice will update its non-discrimination policies and procedures for dismissing patients to resolve allegations it discriminated against a patient with HIV, the Department of Health and Human Services said.

The complaint alleged that the Florida Orthopaedic Institute illegally canceled a surgery because of a patient’s HIV status and then banned him from the practice after he complained to the HHS Office for Civil Rights.

The practice even cited the patient’s complaint to the OCR as grounds for dismissing him from the practice, an act of retaliation that is prohibited under the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the ...