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Practice co-owned by Lancaster County coroner sued over alleged HIV bias

A patient alleged in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Philadelphia that a medical practice co-owned by Lancaster County's coroner discriminated against him and his family because he has HIV.

A patient alleged in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Philadelphia that a medical practice co-owned by Lancaster County's coroner discriminated against him and his family because he has HIV.

The plaintiffs, identified as the patient, Husband Jones, his wife, and daughter, say that after four previous visits, he returned to Stephen G. Diamantoni, M.D., & Associates Family Practice's Quarryville office on Oct. 8, 2013, to get results of blood work drawn four days before. He was given a letter that said that, on his previous visit, "you used the bathroom and apparently left a large amount of blood all over the sink, walls and floor" and that he had 30 days to find another physician. "Unfortunately this dismissal stands for all members of your family as well," according to the letter, which was attached to the suit.

The lawsuit says the patient was not bleeding after the blood draw, had done nothing to make himself bleed, and had left no blood in the bathroom. "This outrageous story is just a false pretext for denying care to a man because of his HIV status," said Ronda B. Goldfein, executive director of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, which filed the suit on the family's behalf on World AIDS Day.

The suit says that the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against the patient as well as against his wife and daughter, neither of whom is infected with HIV. It seeks compensatory and punitive damages and an order that the practice develop a written antidiscrimination policy and conduct mandatory staff training about HIV.

"The lawsuit is meritless," Diamantoni, the Lancaster County coroner, who co-owns the practice but is not an individual defendant in the suit, said in an interview Monday evening. "We have taken care of AIDS patients since 1985," he said, adding that when he first started practicing, before AIDS medication was available, "I used to make house calls to people who were dying of AIDS."

Diamantoni said he was unable to respond to specific allegations in the lawsuit about blood in the bathroom, referring a reporter to William R. Vollmar, a physician in the practice who signed the letter dismissing the patient and is named in the suit, along with the patient's doctor, Jeffrey T. Trost. The office where Vollmar and Trost work referred calls to attorney Joseph P. Hofmann.

"He was the first patient of the day. As soon as he left, staff went in and found blood spatters all over the bathroom," Hofmann said Monday night. "No one else could have done it. As a result, the practice decided to terminate this relationship with him."

dsapatkin@phillynews.com

215-854-2617

@DonSapatkin