Showing posts with label State Medical Boards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label State Medical Boards. Show all posts

Sunday, September 16, 2018

State Medical Board Has A Simple Solution To Help Amid Physician Mental Health Crisis


No, No way, and No Way in Hell.

Everyone else who gets stuck with Dr. Psychiatrist/Psychologist's life wrecking 'Diagnosis' even if they don't get drugged, are screwed with it for the rest of their ruined life. 

US Constitution Amendment 14 Sec 1:

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

If everyone else has to wear it for life, or a very expensive Court proceeding to get Rid of it, so do the people Selling Mental Health stink.


dailycaller
Evie Fordham | Politics and Health Care Reporter
The physician suicide rate is double that of the general population and even higher than the military veteran suicide rate.
Doctors are afraid to admit mental health problems for fear of losing their licenses.


Washington state’s medical community is changing licensing application questions to combat this.

The Washington State Medical Commission (WMC) is taking a step to combat the high suicide rate among physicians by making physician licensing questions more friendly to doctors who have sought psychiatric help.

Updates to Washington state’s licensure questions will focus on an individual’s current impairment rather than if a doctor has had mental health problems at any point in the past. Many doctors fear their reputations and even licensure are at risk if they seek help from a psychiatrist for feelings of burnout or even suicidal thoughts.

Currently, many doctors are “having to sneak out of town, pay cash and use a fake name” when seeking help from a mental health professional, family physician Pamela Wible told Kaiser Health News. She is a self-proclaimed “voice for ideal medical care” and has gathered more than 1,000 stories of doctor suicides for her website to help people better understand the issue.

The WMC expects to update the questions in December after the changes were voted on in June, WMC Executive Director Micah Matthews told The Daily Caller News Foundation via email.

“Historically, medical license applications asked if the applicant has ever had any medical conditions or substance abuse that may impair their practice,” Matthews told TheDCNF. “The updates alter those questions to if they have current conditions or substance abuse issues.”

Many medical organizations are rethinking the policies they have in place because the physician suicide rate is double that of the general population and even higher than the military veteran suicide rate. The physician suicide rate is 28 to 40 per 100,000 individuals per year compared to approximately 12 per 100,000 individuals per year in the general population, according to data presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s 2018 annual meeting.

Licensing question changes like the ones that WMC is making are in line with 2018 wellness and burnout recommendations from the Federation of State Medical Boards, spokesman Joe Knickrehm told TheDCNF via email.

“The FSMB has heard encouraging news from a number of state boards that they are in the process of actively reviewing their licensing application questions,” Knickrehm told TheDCNF. “It is too early to tell how many boards have changed their questions, but we have heard from at least a dozen boards that are discussing it. It’s also important to note that not all boards do ask about an applicant’s mental health.”

The WMC’s updates also includes a safe harbor provision that operates in tandem with the Washington Physicians Health Program (WPHP). (RELATED: Why Is The Physician Suicide Rate So High, And What’s The Medical Community Doing To Change It?)

“WPHP participants can answer ‘no’ to questions about impairing illness if they are ‘known to WPHP,’ which means that they have informed WPHP of their behavior or condition and they are complying with WPHP’s requirements for evaluation, treatment, and monitoring,” Matthews told TheDCNF.

“[This] creates an added layer of confidentiality [and] provides prospective license applicants with a powerful incentive to proactively seek assistance if needed,” he continued. “These changes are intended to reduce the fear of professional sanction and public disclosure of health information that are barriers to help-seeking among physicians.”

The WMC and WPHP hope the changes will encourage doctors to confront any mental health problems head-on. More than half of physicians have symptoms of burnout, which “manifests as emotional exhaustion, loss of meaning in work, and feelings of ineffectiveness,” according to a 2014 Mayo Clinic survey. Burnout can harm physicians’ mental health and even make them feel like taking their own lives is the answer.

Factors such as increased pressure on physicians and lack of contact with other physicians is contributing to burnout and other symptoms, Dr. Chris Bundy of WPHP told TheDCNF via telephone. (RELATED: Michigan Republican John James Dings Opponent Debbie Stabenow For Taking Money From Drug Industry She Claims To Fight)

“Health care is a rapidly changing and dynamic environment, and it’s been hard for organizations to keep up,” Bundy told TheDCNF. “A lot of the changes have fallen squarely on the shoulders of physicians on the front lines of patient care, and now we need to redesign those systems.”

Follow Evie on Twitter @eviefordham.

Send tips to evie@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.






Soviet Style Abuse of Psychiatry Is Now Practiced In The United States



Thursday, July 7, 2016

Newspaper Investigation Spotlights Physician Sexual Misconduct

fiercehealthcare
by Matt Kuhrt |
Jul 6, 2016 10:44am



An investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found more than 2,400 doctors who have been sanctioned for sexual misconduct involving patients since 1999. The paper also suggests the actual number of violations was likely much higher.

The report joins recent efforts by the Safe Patient Project and a recent Public Citizen report published by PLOS One aimed at shedding light on a “culture of secrecy” and a tendency among state medical boards to fail to discipline physicians, even after they were sanctioned by hospitals or other healthcare organizations, according to previous reporting by FiercePracticeManagement. The Atlanta newspaper's investigation, which began with the Georgia Composite Medical Board, looked at public records from all 50 states, which means its numbers cannot account for violations that either did not reach state regulators’ attention or those in which the boards failed to discipline a physician.

The newspaper notes that while the majority of the 900,000 licensed doctors in the country do not sexually abuse their patients, the actual number of cases remains unknown for a number of reasons:

Much of the time, organizations or individuals simply fail to report sexual misconduct, according to the newspaper article. In some cases, medical authorities have historically relied on doctors to self-report, in others, hospitals or practices fail to do so, or neglect to conduct due diligenceduring the hiring process.

According to the investigation, parts of the healthcare industry’s reporting system are purposely opaque. Medical boards sometimes deal with cases via private letters of concern or confidential agreements that never lead to formal sanctions, for example. Doctors also have opportunities to avoid public sanctions by entering into “impaired physician” programs or similar confidential recovery processes, says the newspaper.

Even where records exist, regulators from most states told the newspaper they could not provide details on why doctors received sanctions, forcing investigators to rely on public orders, which are sometimes too vague to identify their cause, or, in some states, not publicly available at all

- read the article
Read more on
Ethics, Patient Safety, Georgia Composite Medical Board

Thank You Mr Kuhrt and FH.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

New York Laws Enable Criminal, Incompetent Nurses

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says his office is prepared to change who oversees nurse licensing


New York's inattention and slow response to incidents of patient harm make the state a haven for criminal and incompetent nurses, according to a report published byProPublica.

Despite a nationwide movement to improve nurse oversight and crack down on licensee misconduct, these reforms have largely passed New York by, according to the report.

The Office of Professions, which oversees nurse licensing in the state, does not require applicant nurses to undergo background checks or submit fingerprints, allowing those with criminal records to fly under the radar, ProPublica reported. The office, a division of the Department of Education, only reluctantly wades into criminal justice matters. When the board does act, the publication reported, it is often years after patients have been neglected, sexually assaulted and even killed. 

On Thursday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told WNYC that his office questions whether the Department of Education is "the right agency" to put in charge of nurse licensing, saying, "Should the state education department have the responsibility of licensing nurses, or is that too far afield for them and should the department of health do it?"


To learn more:
- read the ProPublica report
- listen to Cuomo's interview


Thank You Mr Ferguson and FH.


"Why, there outta be a law." 
Governor Foghorn Bullsworth

No Governor, we have plenty of laws. What there ought to be is enforcement rather than the endemic protection of such malfeasors by peers and peer groups.  

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Ex-Des Moines Doctor Cited In West Virginia VA Death

Medicine was a stink pit of corruption and good old boy butt covering long before ObamaCare tossed its gasoline on the fire, and this problem is not exclusive to the VA by any stretch of the imagination.

State Med Boards Not Punishing Dangerous Docs 

Medical Boards Lack Resources ??? To Punish Dangerous Docs

Are State Medical Boards Doing Enough To Protect Patients?

weaselzippers;

VA Doctors are exempt from being licensed in the State where the VA hospital is located.
Christopher Carson says that if he’d known what Dr. Robert Finley III had been accused of in Des Moines, he never would have let the surgeon touch his father at a veterans hospital in West Virginia.
Asa Carson, 71, died in 2013 of what the family says were painful surgical complications. His son was stunned to later learn that the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Huntington, W.Va., had hired a surgeon who was charged with incompetence by Iowa regulators. Finley agreed in 2011 to pay a $5,000 fine to settle allegations that his mistakes caused the deaths of six Iowa patients and injured three others in 2005 and 2006.
“In my mind, there should be more repercussions,” Carson said. “You shouldn’t be able to just pack your bags and move to another state.”
The Carson family is suing the VA in federal court, contending that Finley bungled three abdominal surgeries on Asa Carson and failed to fix a correctable perforated colon.
Finley, 59, who used to practice at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, has denied wrongdoing. He continues to work at the VA hospital in Hunt ington. He did not respond to requests this week for comment.
If current patients checked Finley’s background on the West Virginia medical board’s website, they would find no hint that he’d been in serious trouble in Des Moines. To find that information, they would have to know to look at Iowa records, or they would have to pay $9.95 to look on a national website.
Thank You DMR and Dapandico.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Are State Medical Boards Doing Enough To Protect Patients?


Fierce Healthcare has;
Are State Medical Boards Doing Enough To Protect Patients

Wisconsin state medical board faces scrutiny with few actions against doctors


The Wisconsin state medical board is facing criticism that the state fails to discipline doctors who make mistakes, according to a special report by the Wisconsin State Journal.

Wisconsin has one of the lowest rates of physician discipline, with the other low discipline states being Minnesota, South Carolina, Massachusetts and Connecticut, according to Public Citizen 
data analyzed by the Wisconsin State Journal. Wisconsin has 1.9 actions per 1,000 physicians.

Although the low rate could signal better care in the state, as the board noted, the watchdog group says it's more likely due to poor disciplinary action. Doctors who make mistakes often don't face serious consequences. More than half of 218 doctors disciplined from 2010 to 2012 only got reprimands. More than 50 of those cases involved patient harm or death, the newspaper noted.

Public Citizen has long argued the 
lax state medical boards allow incompetent or dangerous doctors to fly under the radar. Although the state medical board follows up on complaints, it does not conduct its own investigations, according to state statutes. If validated, the complaints go on the physician's record but do not affect his or her practice. Instead, physicians routinely undergo reprimands, fines and re-education.
Families of the affected patients said it's not enough and that the punishment doesn't fit the crime.

However, the state Supreme Court ruled the medical board is supposed to protect the public, deter wrongdoing and rehabilitate doctors--not punish them.

In addition, the state medical board said it lacks the resources to revoke or suspend medical licenses more strongly, according to Sheldon Wasserman, board chairman of the State Medical Examining Board. "That comes at a cost. We don't have the resources."

The report questions the purpose of state medical boards at all.

"It's a dysfunctional process," Dan Rottier, a medical malpractice attorney from Madison, said about Wisconsin's medical board. "We tell people never to expect them to do anything."


Although the Federation of State Medical Boards in May noted that state medical boards punished 6.8 percent more dangerous doctors in 2011, with increased disciplinary actions, Public Citizen said state medical boards still are falling short on protecting patients from inferior care, partly because of shrinking state budgets.

For more information:
- see the
 Wisconsin State Journal article, map data on actions and chart of reprimanded physiciansRelated Articles:
Could a national registry save hospital from hiring problem workers?
Medical board, watchdog group clash over doc discipline
HHS: Doctor malpractice, disciplinary data no longer public
Medical board lacks resources to punish dangerous docs
High number of New York doctors on medical board watch list
State medical board fails to discipline, disclose bad docs
State medical board disciplining more docs


Thank You Fierce Healthcare and Ms Cheung-Larivee



Most, of the mis-behaviors listed in the linked chart:

map data on actions

Are Incurable 'Mental Illnesses' according to Psychiatry, and as Ms Cheung Larivee's article highlights, very little if anything gets done about the far greater number of Physicians harming and killing patients through similar behaviors.



They're still working, (and Billing Medicare/Medicaid/Private Insurers/Patients) as the victims of their Seance Science Branch are consigned to having their Unalienable Civil Rights Illegally Stolen, tossed onto the Public Dole, and used up to peddle drugs which the VA has determined have: "No Positive Outcome".

Dear US Department Of Veterans Affairs, An Open Letter

And they're All too Freaking Brilliant to Ever find out about that "No Positive Outcome", even though they work With those "No Positive Outcome" drugs day in, day out, and Lie through their Teeth about those drugs, for decades.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Medical Boards Lack Resources ??? To Punish Dangerous Docs

Dateline: August 10, 2011:

Fierce Healthcare has:

Medical Board Lacks Resources To Punish Dangerous Docs

August 10, 2011 — 11:40am ET | By

Earlier this year, consumer advocacy group Public Citizen called for the Department of Health & Human Services to investigate state medical boards for failing to punish doctors with serious medical practice violations. Since then, not much has changed, as California's medical board failed to discipline 710 dangerous doctors even though they were disciplined by hospitals, surgical centers, and other healthcare organizations where they worked, according to a report released on Tuesday by Public Citizen.

What's more, 35 percent of those doctors were repeat offenders.

Nationwide, more than 200 doctors were deemed an "immediate threat to health or safety" of patients and had their clinical privileges suspended, limited, or revoked; California docs accounted for nearly half of those. Despite hospitals taking action, medical boards let these doctors escape punishment.

According to California's medical board, a lack of adequate staffing and funding may have hindered its ability to follow up on the 710 physicians it failed to discipline, (Ed: ?????) an issue that other medical boards might be struggling with amid state budget cuts.

"We believe more data needs to be obtained, but like many state agencies, we have a 20 percent vacancy rate, and we're trying to focus on our core functions," said Jennifer Simoes, a Medical Board spokeswoman, after reviewing the findings, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The watchdog group recommends boards be independent from state medical societies and other parts of the state government so they can create their own budgets and regulations to effectively ensure patient protection and quality care.

California ranked 35th in the nation for disciplining doctors in Public Citizen's 2011 analysis. The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice has done the worst job, according to the report.

For more:
- read the Public Citizen
press release
- read the
LA Times article

Related Articles:
Watchdog group ranks the best, worst states for disciplining doctors
State med boards not punishing dangerous docs
Nearly 2,000 dangerous nurses will face disciplinary actions


RELATED STORIES


Thank You Fierce Healthcare and Ms Caramenico


See David Sell's column at Philly.com for The State of Arkansas v J&J/Risperdal which is set to begin, in Court, next week.

"Bright Light Helps Expose Problems, Texas Medicaid Chief Says"


One, Risperdal pushing California City scraped up $200,000,000 to feed its Empire of Mind Control peddlers for just 1 year, and the entire State can't afford to deal with 710 Doctors due to a lack of Funding?



And while we're at it, what criteria is the Medical Board of California using in determining whether a Doctor is Dangerous or not?


Do you think that the NON-EXISTENCE of two entire hospitals worth of Doctors inflicting those Direct Effects of Psychiatric Drugs/Electrocutions might have anything to do with the State Medical Board's Inability to properly Fund themselves?



Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Shell Companies Steal Millions In Medicare Fraud

FierceHealthcare has;


December 22, 2011 — 1:10pm ET | By

"
Shell companies--sham firms on paper with no real operations--are a prime tool for fraudsters to scam Medicare out of millions of dollars, according to a Reuters investigation. Medicare's current pay-and-chase system has holes that allow providers (or imposter providers) to bill Medicare for services and then steal millions of dollars from the federal health program.


For instance, Florida authorities charged Michel De Jesus Huarte for his role in setting up fake AIDS clinics in Florida, but not before he billed Medicare for more than $4.5 million and formed at least 29 other shell companies in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina, Reuters reports. Huarte and co-conspirators formed clinics purported to treat HIV and AIDS patients and submitted claims for expensive drugs such as Infliximab and Rituxan, costing Medicare as much as $7,800 per dose.

"This is a 'Catch Me If You Can' environment," said Ryan K. Stumphauzer, a former assistant U.S. attorney with the Department of Justice in Miami who prosecuted Huarte. "We had no clue who Huarte was. We had no idea there was some mastermind out there."

The strategy of shell companies can go unnoticed for years. Scam artists use fake names and addresses for corporations or real information from others. In Florida, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents said almost every Medicare fraud case involved a shell company.

Florida, where the fake AIDS clinic scheme took place, is one of five states that tops the list for the most Medicaid fraud activity, according to a recent Office of Inspector General report issued in October; the other states are New York, Texas, California and Ohio.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) last month announced that hospitals soon will be subject to prepayment audits, with aims to fix the traditional pay-and-chase method. Effective January 2012, Medicare recovery audit contractors (RAC) in 11 states will conduct reviews of inpatient claims before payment. Those states will be areas that have high fraud and error-prone providers (Florida, California, Michigan, Texas, New York, Louisiana and Illinois), as well as those states with high claims volumes of short hospital stays (Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and Montana).

Although the government has expanded its Medicare Strike Force with increased focus on acute-care and critical access hospitals, senators this week are pushing for better assessment of Medicare fraud detection.

CMS plans to launch a new predictive modeling program nationwide this summer, in which the analysis tool will flag common patterns of Medicare fraud, such as suspicious billing patterns or a great distance between the hospital where treatment occurred and the claimant's home address, reports Nextgov.

Senate Federal Financial Management Subcommittee Chairman Tom Carper (D-Del.), Ranking Member Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) on Tuesday requested CMS outline its plans to launch the predictive analytics technology and stated that CMS may not have sufficient metrics and processes in place as part of a comprehensive plan to ensure the success of identifying and preventing fraud.

For more information:
- read the
press release on Huarte's charges
- read the Reuters
article
- read the
Nextgov article
- here's the Senate
press release
Related Articles:CMS inaction leaves system holes for fraud, abuse
Gov't recovers record-high $2.8B in whistleblower fraud cases
Home health owners plead guilty to $1M Medicare fraud
Feds' $5.6B fraud collection hits record high
Hospitals worried about Medicare RAC prepayment audits


Thank You Fierce Healthcare and Ms Cheung


And California made the list.

We´re Shocked, I tell you. Shocked and Amazed. Simply Shocked: when San Francisco blew $200 Million in 1 year dispensing Opinions of Mystic, Dual Diagnosed Incurables, .....


under the watchful eye of a Chief Psychiatrist, Dr Francis G Lu, who actually believes that his Movie Reviews, and disappearing brick and mortar Hospitals non staffed by non-existent Psychiatric Psychiatrists, qualify him to tell the world, ..... that he's an Illuminati.

You Might want to contrast San Francisco's $200 Million epidemic of Disease Mongering with the State of Illinois carping that it couldn't Afford to Investigate 85% of the Complaints it got, about Hospitals, ...... because it could only scrape up, ..... even WITH matching Federal Funds, ..... just under a $Half Million.



Fierce Healthcare has;
November 9, 2011 — 12:46pm ET | By
"Due to limited state funds, the Illinois Department of Public Health declined to investigate 85 percent of the 560 hospital complaints it received last year, reported the Chicago Tribune this week. Some of the complaints included reports of serious patient abuse and poor infection control, according to the article.


"These are serious complaints," said Lisa McGiffert, director of the national Consumers Union Safe Patient Project. "If the regulatory system is collecting these complaints and not responding, that is a massive failure of oversight."
The state in 2010 spent $498,000 on hospital oversight with half the funds coming from the federal government and the other half from the state. Article


Thank You Fierce Healthcare and Ms Cheung.
Does anyone still have a problem spelling Protectionist?