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Maryland
Board of Physicians May Not Survive Attack on Mark
and David Geier...
Opinion by Consumer Advocate
Tim
Bolen
Sunday,
December 4th, 2011
The Maryland Board of Physicians woke up
last week to find that the Maryland
legislature, which they thought, I
guess, was completely asleep, had
quietly, and very thoroughly, conducted
a formal investigation of the board's
operation. The legislative
committee in charge of this secret
investigation issued a two-hundred page
report scalding the department,
virtually declaring the board
incompetent and working against the
interests of the people of Maryland.
In a moment I will show you flaming
excerpts from this report.
Last April 28th, 2011 famous mercury
issue attorney Bob Reeves had
called me, asking me to look into, as a
Crisis Management Consultant, the
Maryland Geier situation and give him,
and the Geiers, my Opinion and make some
Recommendations. I did that, both
publicly and privately. You can
read my original public analysis by
clicking
here.
One thing I had pointed out, both
publicly and privately, was that, in my
opinion, the board, itself, was
operating, not for the people of
Maryland, but for special interests (the
vaccine construction) - I pointed out
specifics. I pointed
out that licensing boards, despite their
own ideas of how they operate, do NOT
operate without oversight, and that
whatever that oversight in Maryland was,
it needed to be activated immediately.
There are in Maryland, three separate
systems in place that can, and do,
provide constant oversight of the
Maryland Board of Physicians (Medical
Board). There is a fourth that,
although not constantly operating, can
be brought into the fore with specific
action: (1) The board is
part of the Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene and as such its operation
is supposed to be reviewed by that
department. (2) The Maryland
legislature in two parts; (a) the
Senate Education, Health, and
Environmental Affairs Committee, and (b)
the House Health and Governmental
Operations Committee, (3) the
people via the Maryland Public
Information Act (PIA), and (4) the
Court system.
The first oversight option is now, and
will be for some time, a waste of time.
For the department is headed by Joshua
Scharfstein, vaccine promoter
extraordinaire. But all of the
others have merit. What has been
activated, quite strongly, is option
number two, and it was done with gusto.
Why? Because the Maryland Board of
Physicians was STRONGLY WARNED by the
legislature before, in 2003, and CHOSE
NOT TO COMPLY.
What can
happen?
The Maryland legislature maintains
control of licensing boards in several
ways. State legislatures are the
apparatus that pass laws regarding how
they want licensing boards to operate.
Some boards, once they are sitting,
become arrogant, and pretty much blow
off the policies set in place by the
lawmakers inserting their own versions
of policy in place - like right here in
Maryland.
Over the years this "their own version"
situation became so common that most
State legislatures passed what are
called "Sunset Review" laws that, in
fact, automatically, and periodically,
CANCEL licensing boards, forcing those
boards to come to the legislature and
BEG and PLEAD to be renewed, going
through an investigative procedure
started, automatically, by a review of
their operation by a selected, and
standing, legislative committee.
And that, people, is what started the
procedure ending up with a two hundred
page MEGA-CRITICISM of the Maryland
Board of Physicians. Joshua
Scharfstein, shocked to his knees, is
begging the legislature to give the
board one more year to clean up its act,
pointing (insert laughter here) at the
attack on the Geiers as though it was a
good thing.
But, the Maryland legislature is well
aware, due to the two-hundred page
report, that over eight hundred (800)
complaints, went not only
un-investigated, but un-processed in any
way, while the entire board staff,
including every supervisor,
investigator, analyst, whatever, focused
ONLY on the Geier case.
Apparently, under secret orders, every
board asset was then, and is now, being
focused on the Geiers. To no
avail.
Just below is an excerpt from the
report's conclusion. I have bolded
significant parts:
"Despite the progress made by MBP,
significant challenges face MBP and its
allied health
advisory committees. Perhaps most
significant is the growing backlog of
complaints and the ongoing increase in
the timeline for complaint resolution.
The addition of new allied health
professions to the jurisdiction of MBP
raises the question of what the
relationship between MBP and the
respective allied health advisory
committees and the role of the
committees in regulating allied health
professions should be. Another
challenge facing the board is how
effectively it balances the need for
openness and transparency with the needs
of licensees. Finally, whether the
board is using its resources in the best
way to meet these challenges continues
to be an issue.
MBP plays a key role in protecting
the public health and welfare, and there
is no question
that MBP and its allied health advisory
committees should continue to exist. The
purpose of this report and its
recommendations is to help MBP and its
committees improve their ability to
protect the public health and welfare
and meet the challenges facing them.
However, based on past performance, the
Department of Legislative Services (DLS)
has significant concerns about whether
the recommendations, especially those
contained in legislation, will be
complied with by MBP. The board has
failed to implement key recommendations
and requirements from previous sunset
evaluations and sunset legislation.
Also, DLS found that MBP fails to comply
with several statutory requirements
regarding (1) complaint investigation
files; (2) provision of contact
information on the board website
regarding medical malpractice
information; (3) obtaining peer review
reports; (4) public disclosure of board
filing of charges; and (5) compliance
with the Open Meetings Act. The board
additionally fails to adopt regulations
even when required by law.
Based on these findings, DLS
recommends that the termination dates of
MBP and its
allied health advisory committees only
be extended for one year until July 1,
2014. Also, any
statutory changes recommended in this
evaluation should be implemented through
legislation adopted in the 2012 session
of the General Assembly. In the
meantime, DLS should be required to make
a recommendation regarding further
extension to the Senate Education,
Health, and Environmental Affairs and
the House Health and Government
Operations committees by October 1,
2013. The recommendation should be
determined based on the progress of MBP
in complying with the recommendations of
this report and the submission of a
follow-up report by MBP to DLS."
Words from the Baltimore Sun...
In an article titled " Audit
criticizes state medical board for
backlog of complaints" it said
""The state
Board of Physicians has a serious backlog of
complaints and a growing timeline for
resolving it, according to a newly released
legislative audit of the agency charged with
protecting the public from bad doctors.
It also
isn't keeping complete records and its
actions lack transparency, sometimes in
violation of open meetings laws, the review
says.
The review
comes ahead of the General Assembly session
in January, when lawmakers are to consider
reauthorizing the medical board, which
expires under a "sunset" provision. It also
comes six years after auditors first
outlined similar problems with the board and
nine years after the board was remade to
address lax protection of consumers.
"The board
faces significant challenges moving
forward," the review reads. "Also, based on
past performance, [the Department of
Legislative Services] has significant
concerns about whether the recommendations,
especially those contained in legislation,
will be complied with by [the medical
board]. The board failed to implement key
recommendations and requirements of previous
sunset evaluations and sunset legislation."
The
21-member board includes 13 doctors and five
consumer members. For fiscal 2012, it has an
appropriation of $8.6 million and 68 staff,
who are responsible for licensing and
overseeing 43,000 medical professionals.
During
fiscal 2011, it handled almost 1,730
complaints, including 739 that continued
from the previous year.
By the
year's end, it closed almost 900, leaving
more than 800 pending. It took 164 formal
actions, more than in previous years, the
review noted. Some recent high-profile
actions include revoking the license of Mark
G. Midei, a Towson cardiologist accused of
placing unnecessary stents, and suspending
the license of Mark R. Geier, a Rockville
doctor accused of mistreating children with
autism. Both have appealed the decisions.
Complaints
come to the board from the public, as well
as from boards in other states and other
providers. The majority involve allegations
that doctors did not meet the standard of
care or that their actions were
unprofessional or immoral."
You can read the entire article by
clicking
here.
Then in another article titled "Outside
consultant considered for embattled Board of
Physicians - Recent audit found problems
with enforcement, transparency"
the Baltimore Sun said:
"The
state Board of Physicians, slammed
in a recent legislative audit for
its dysfunction, told a panel of
lawmakers Wednesday that it could
get on track in another year by
hiring an outside consultant and
instituting long-awaited
guidelines.
The chairman of the board,
however, disputed that so much was
wrong and noted several high profile
actions it had taken in recent
years, which include revoking the
license of Mark G. Midei, a Towson
cardiologist accused of placing
unnecessary stents and suspending
the license of Mark R. Geier, a
Rockville doctor accused of
mistreating children with autism.
"I feel like the Board of
Physicians is being taken to the
woodshed," said Dr. Paul Elder, the
chairman and an Anne Arundel County
physician, to the Senate Education,
Health and Environmental Affairs
Committee. "The board works hard and
does a good job protecting the
public."
The lawmakers, who write
legislation to reauthorize the
21-member board periodically under a
"sunset" provision, appeared
skeptical. They said they've waited
years for the board charged with
protecting the public from bad
doctors to clear a backlog of cases,
institute sanctioning guidelines for
doctors and develop transparent and
consistent practices.
This was the first opportunity to
hear from the board about a set of
criticisms made by legislative
auditors ahead of the next sunset,
including some that have been
leveled as early as 2003. The
auditors made 46 recommendations for
correcting the problems.
The subcommittee chairwoman,
Sen. Joan Carter Conway, said the
board had been flouting statutes
designed to make the system fair to
doctors and protective for the
public. "It's unconscionable," she
said.
Sen. Edward R. Reilly, an
Anne Arundel Republican, said he
understood the challenges of
overseeing 43,000 health
professionals and the tight budget
constraints but said too much of the
board's work was done in secrecy. He
also said, "It's our job to say the
backlog is unacceptable."
The excerpts bolded above are the most
important parts.
What does this
all mean?
What is very clear is that the Maryland
Board of Physicians sees itself as above
the law - and is heading for a major
fall. Whether that fall comes from
the Maryland legislature, from the
Governor's office, or from the court
system remains to be seen.
What could happen? A lot.
Many States have taken hard action
against recalcitrant licensing boards.
In California, for instance, the
legislature forced a two-year monitor on
the board, releasing the board only
after it adopted the monitor's
recommendations. California also,
shut down the entire Dental Board one
time, firing all of the board members -
and the Governor appointed all new
members.
What it really means is that the
Maryland legislature has given the
Geiers a huge gift they can use against
the board and its staff in Federal
Court. For, the legislature has
made it publicly clear that the board is
operating outside of DUE PROCESS.
The Maryland Board of Physicians is DEAD
MEAT.
Stay tuned.
Tim Bolen - Consumer
Advocate
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