Maryland Board of Physicians: entrapment 101

Maryland Board of Physicians: entrapment 101

Physicians in Maryland are left dimensionless when they seek to understand the boundaries medical licensure imposes on them. Over the last fifteen years the Maryland Board of Physicians has failed to promulgate guidelines and regulatory structure that licensees can view to know the limits of their practice endeavors.  Medical Practice is a complex activity guided by an extraordinary knowledge base, a keen intellect and a profound ability to make appropriate decisions. The latter may explain why there are so many more lawyers. For nearly a decade the Maryland Board of Physicians has engaged private medical organizations to perform medical chart review. The hired guns from these concerns use their own rules to review medical records, not those the medical board was mandated to create. Many of these medical experts have specious credentials, some do not have “any” training in the specific field they are reviewing. As a result a physician can lose his medical license never knowing the playbook or the actors forcibly taking his license from him. Forget due process that is a word that law students learn, but a forgotten concept by Maryland’s physician board. As a result before a physician has been able to review charges against him/her, hire an attorney (you would probably do better defending yourself) and managed a response the Medical Board has leaked their attack strategy on you to the media. Your reputation is quickly diminished to zero, the little money you have saved is now in the pocket of your personal Perry Mason and your colleagues want nothing to do with you. The circumstances surrounding the loss of Dr. Mark Medei’s medical license exemplifies the actions of a rogue medical board that made this physician a cause celebre before he could utter one word of defense. Details released to the public concerning his practice pattern, patient population and surgical proclivities are sketchy. We have been left in the void how his own colleagues approached the review of each of his cases at the Hospital level. Innocent until proven guilty is still a precept even under the Obama administration and it should apply equally in Maryland. Yet the Medical Board manipulated their media releases to make themselves look like the good guys when they are far from it. In other articles I have discussed how medical license administrative reviews, at the Office of Administrative Hearings, are skewed in favor of the medical board. Maryland’s Attorney General’s representatives not only have rapports with these politically appointed judges, they have outright lied and manipulated evidence/testimony to obtain outcomes positive to the Board. Dr. Medei was victimized by a system that is ripe for abuse by those who are looking to move up the food chain. He is entitled to a full hearing outside the politics of a medical board that has had a torrent of its own problems, as recently noted in scathing report by the Maryland legislature. Before the Maryland Board of Physicians points any more fingers at physicians; its entire staff should be overturned, it should seek appropriate counsel from outside the Attorney General’s Office, find specialists whose knowledge base is compatible with the medical records they are reviewing and similar to the State Bar keep proceeding confidential until they are absolutely certain the physician in question is guilty of the charges laid at his/her door. In the event Dr. Medei’s former patients can prove they were harmed, they may be entitled to some compensation. On the other side, if the suits against Dr. Medei are frivolous he should sue the plaintiff and counsel for double the amount he is being sued. My question is: how many lives have Dr. Medei saved, Hundreds or may be thousands? Perhaps the Baltimore Sun should expend a little more energy looking for positive actions by physicians instead of seeking anything that would debase the medical profession. Mark Davis MD, President of Healthnets Review Services, advisor to the media and others on health related issues. platomd@gmail.com, http//:www.markdavismd.com

Maryland Justice: Soviet Style

Maryland Justice: Soviet Style

Maryland has institutionalized soviet style justice. The ability of a person with or without an attorney to provide oral arguments before a court has been curtailed by an extremist judiciary. People are no longer seen as individuals bringing their grievances to an arbiter for resolution. Many Maryland judges recognize them as nuisances to be expeditiously shown the door. Maryland Court of Special Appeals has followed a path that autocratic societies generally accept as the norm, but not in those domains where democracy is the foundation. In a case that could have extended ramifications for physicians here in Maryland and beyond our state borders this author brought a legal action against a medical record peer reviewer, who was engaged by the Maryland Board of Physicians. As a plaintiff before the Howard Circuit representing himself, Judge Louis Becker was confrontational with this pro se as he exchanged pleasantries with the defendant’s attorney, in an effort to quickly dismiss this action without hearing its merits. The essence of the case was a physician who was not a specialist in the core material he was hired to “peer” review was allowed to perform in a Maryland court as an expert witness. In his own words the witness admitted to his lacked expertise, yet he was the sole reason the Maryland Board of Physicians revoked a medical license. Physicians in Maryland will now confront hired guns as quasi medical experts to steal their livelihoods. Judge Becker, in a manner befitting a party member, lambasted this author as he pointed to the door leading out of the courtroom. Hoping for an ounce of recourse from a Maryland Judiciary that sold its sole to the highest bidder long ago the case was appealed to the Court of Special Appeals. As in the lower court pro se justice is no justice in these higher domains. Someone in the Court of Appeals determined that they will deny this author the right to present oral arguments before the three judge panel, who will presumably white washed this case in favor of the medical board (Mark Davis v. Ira Kaplan case number 02836 September Term 2010). Oral arguments, as is noted by numerous  Supreme Court justices, is essential to understanding a case brought before a higher judicial body. These arguments allow facts to be solidified and nuances of the case to be drawn out. Maryland Appellate Courts roll out the red carpets for those with highly paid attorneys and cases that make the 5pm news. The rest of us are diminished by a judiciary that legislates from the bench and denies basic rights drawn from a Constitution they are paid to uphold. Maryland has gone down the road of Soviet style justice disregarding fairness for expediency and judicial balance for a convoluted interpretation of Maryland law. Marylanders, your courts are an extension of the same great party that is presently destroying America, wakeup or you will be engulfed by their flagrant disregard for your rights too. Mark Davis MD, author of Demons of Democracy. platomd@gmail.com

Maryland's Medical Board: What went wrong

Maryland’s Medical Board: What went wrong

Maryland’s Board of Physicians has seen better days. Recent changes in its membership composition have turned it into little more than a neighborhood watch group. Its former expertise has evaporated, to make way for the present politically correct entity that has clearly and unapologetically flouted the very laws that empower them. Recently, the medical board has come under fire for its lax procedures, disregard for due process, failure to follow legislative mandates and sundry other issues uncovered by a legislative audit. Physicians no longer can look to the medical board for guidance in the course of their practices because this administrative entity has not promulgated any rules of procedure in the last decade. Though Maryland citizens have a right to competent medical personnel, this should not preclude physicians from obtaining unbiased, appropriate and legitimate review when their abilities are questioned. Maryland’s legislative audit was superficial, yet alarming. The physician community was aware of many of its findings for years.  Statutes written to provide a level of fairness to physicians during a review process have not been instituted. As a result a physician can now lose his/her medical license based on the word of one physician, who may not be in the specialty of the doctor under review contrary to Maryland law. This is exemplified in the case of Mark Davis, MD whose medical license is pending revocation. The medical board should have its charter revoked, and Dr. Davis’ case should be reviewed because of the illicit manner in which it was managed. Legislators are calling for an external review of the Board and plan to engage the services of a physician from the University of Maryland. This is a big mistake. The politically active doctor they have in mind will white-wash the mess the retiring director Irving Pinder is leaving behind. Maryland Board of Physicians needs to be reconstituted. All of its procedures should come under review and present actions against medical personnel should be put in abeyance until the public is allowed transparency into the board’s procedures and practices. Mark Davis, MD president of Healthnets Review Services, platomd@gmail.com, www.markdavismd.com

Maryland Board of Physicians' illicit activities

Maryland Board of Physicians’ illicit use of authority

Maryland Board of Physicians no longer functions under the canopy of Maryland Law. Legislative mandates have very little meaning to those who believe they are beyond reproach. Maryland Legislature’s recent audit of this administrative entity, confirmed what many of us already knew, that it either cherry picks which laws to follow or ignores them completely. Maryland Board of Physicians was reconstituted in 2003 increasing its membership to 21 from 15. Presently 40% of those who serve on this entity are not physicians, diluting its expertise significantly. In an attempt to fill the void, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office imbued its authority throughout the Board’s structure, providing misleading and misguided counsel to this diminished entity. Maryland Board of Physicians failure to promulgate rules and regulations concerning physician practice is a point of contention for those who are forced to come before it. More egregious, this failure impedes physicians from certain due process rights provided to them by the Maryland Legislature. When confronted with these concerns, lawyers from the Attorney General’s Office dance around the issue, always ready with a judge in their back pocket to resolve the problem in their favor. In 2003 the Maryland legislature mandated that TWO physicians must agree that a doctor under review has deviated from the standard of care before a charge against him/her can be drawn. In the event they are in disagreement a third physician must be brought in to reconcile review process.  Eight years after this mandate was written, it still has not been implemented. Maryland Board of Physicians is now permitted to revoke a physician’s license based on the word of one medical doctor, who does not need to be in the specific field of the person being reviewed. The Board was able to get around this mandate because of their friends in the Appellate courts who rubberstamp whatever they bring before it. Mark Davis, MD faces revocation of his medical license because of the medical board’s illicit activities and the latter scenario presented. How many other physicians have been exposed to the Maryland Board of Medicines willy-nilly approach to the law is uncertain. This board Mark should be disbanded and those who stepped outside specific legislative mandates  prosecuted.  Davis, MD president of Healthnets Review Services, platomd@gmail.com, www.markdavismd.com