A case was filed on Tuesday in the Multnomah County, Oregon state court against Vibra Specialty Hospital of Portland and Chris Jones. The case was regarding racial discrimination and retaliation.
The plaintiff is a person of color who was employed by the defendants as Director of Health Information Management, the complaint said. Per the plaintiff, he routinely performed duties beyond his scope of employment for the sake of the defendants and otherwise performed excellent work.
In June of 2020, the complaint said that the plaintiff received a request to code in a specific manner; the plaintiff allegedly informed the defendants that coding in that manner could be a violation of certain laws including privacy and did not follow the request. The defendants also demanded that the plaintiff provide certain reports, however, after the plaintiff informed the defendants that there was not sufficient information to generate the report, the defendants began treating the plaintiff coldly, the complaint said.
The plaintiff was terminated from the position and per the plaintiff, defendant Jones informed the plaintiff that “that Plaintiff was only hired because he was friends with the former CEO and that he should never have been hired.” Per the plaintiff, the only interaction that the plaintiff had with the former CEO was a phone interview for the position.
Plaintiff is suing for race discrimination, retaliation, and aiding and abetting race discrimination. The plaintiff is represented by Ramelli Law LLC.
