Doctor refuses to treat overweight woman

From my local news - Doctor refuses to treat overweight Shrewsbury patient 

There's a video at the link - check it out - but WAIT?

Is it legal to choose not to serve a patient because she's overweight?  I'm overweight -- is this a reason to not help me?

Obesity PPM says - 

Primary care provider, Dr. Helen Carter, at the UMass Memorial Medical Center refused to treat a patient because she was clinically obese. Apparently, it is office policy NOT to treat clinically obese people because several employees were injured while helping overweight patients - and there are treatment "alternatives" for those who are obese.

And for those already wondering ... no, it's not illegal to refuse treatment because of a person's weight. What we'd like to know is this: If there are tall individuals who are not clinically obese, but could require assistance that might result in the "injury" of a staff member, will those people be turned away, too? Is this really about risk of injury, or is it another example of weight bias?
Obesity Action Coalition (OAC)

Doctor refuses to treat overweight Shrewsbury patient -

"I can't believe and I did say that out loud, 'I can't believe you guys just said that to me.'  I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life," Davidson said.

Davidson said she is a "little overweight."  The incident on Wednesday occurred during a second visit to Dr. Helen M. Carter at the doctor's Worcester office.

Davidson said she believes, "I may be high risk for her and too much work is what I felt." 

She said Carter focused on weight.

According to Davidson, "She's like, 'You gained weight, are your feet swollen, are your feet swollen?' I said 'No.' She was really obsessed about the whole thing and me being in her office and she didn't want to care for me."

Carter told NewsCenter 5  it's a matter of "self preservation for herself and her employees."

"After three consecutive injuries (with other patients) trying to care for people over 250 pounds, my office is unable to accommodate a certain weight and we put a limit on it," Carter said.

The policy may be unusual, but it is not illegal. 

The American Medical Association's Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs policy reads "Both patients and physicians should be able to exercise freedom in whom to enter into a patient-physician relationship ... physicians do not give up their freedom of association by merely becoming professionals."