A Michigan physician was sentenced to 30 days in jail for practicing medicine without a license, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on May 29, 2024. He also received a $2,000 fine and was ordered to pay another $1,000 in court costs, $60 in DNA costs, $130 Crime Victim Rights assessment, and $340 in state costs. He was convicted by a Kent County jury of six counts of the Unauthorized Practice of a Health Profession this past March.
The defendant had practiced at his Grand Rapids clinic as a licensed physician within the specialty of urogynecology. With authorization from the Board of Medicine, the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) began investigating the defendant’s practices and filed an administrative complaint against him on May 17th, 2022. The administrative complaint alleged a departure from acceptable medical standards. Based upon the allegations in the administrative complaint, and in consultation with the Board of Medicine, LARA issued a Summary Suspension of the defendant’s license to practice medicine on May 23rd of that same year.
Additional investigation conducted by both LARA and the Department of Attorney General confirmed that the defendant continued treating patients at his clinic after the suspension of his license to practice.
“The health and safety of our community depend on qualified and licensed medical professionals,” Nessel said. “Practicing medicine without a license or while that license is suspended is a serious health risk and can expose patients to unsafe or ineffective care. My office takes these violations seriously and will continue to investigate and prosecute those who endanger public health.”
Compliance Perspective
Issue
Professional licenses should be verified upon hire, and the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) List of Excluded Individuals and Entities (LEIE) should be checked monthly to ensure no current employees are on the list. Professional license active status should also be tracked regularly. Anyone who hires or partners with an individual or entity on the LEIE may be subject to civil monetary penalties (CMP). Misuse of allocated public funds can be seen as fraud, waste, and abuse of government funds. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requires skilled nursing facilities to have a compliance and ethics program that is effective in preventing and detecting criminal, civil, and administrative violations under the Social Security Act, and in promoting quality of care. Routine audits should be conducted at each facility on monetary transactions and the results of the audits should be reported to the compliance and ethics committee and to the governing body.
Discussion Points
- Review policies and procedures for verifying the status of professional licenses, including confirming that they are not included on a state or OIG exclusion list. Update as necessary.
- Train appropriate staff to follow protocols for verification of licenses and certifications of employees at the time of hire and on an ongoing basis to ensure that those licenses remain up to date and are unencumbered. Ensure that training is provided to licensed personnel about their responsibility to maintain an active license and to notify administration should their license be suspended, expire, or if they are added to the OIG’s LEIE or a state exclusion list.
- Periodically audit to verify that the licensing and certifications of employees are valid and up to date and that OIG LEIE checks are routinely conducted. Immediately address any negative findings. Also periodically perform audits to ensure all staff are aware of the importance of identifying compliance and ethics concerns and their responsibility to report them to their supervisor, the compliance and ethics officer, or via the anonymous hotline.
*This news alert has been prepared by Med-Net Concepts, LLC for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.*
