Transgender Patient Sues Physician for Alleged Discriminatory Refusal of Treatment

​A healthcare services network in Illinois and its nonprofit parent corporation have denied allegations of discrimination under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) brought by a transgender patient who claims that she was denied necessary health services by her primary care physician. According to the complaint, which also named the patient's primary care physician as a defendant, the patient was told by the organization's patient services coordinator that the clinic's providers did not need to treat "people like you." The plaintiff's attorney said that it was "one of the first cases, if not the first case," in which a plaintiff claimed that a healthcare provider discriminated against a transgender patient in violation of PPACA section 1557(a), which is the civil rights provision of the Act. Section 1557 prohibits discrimination on the ground of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability.