Tag: Doctors

WebMDon’t: Physicians Need to Avoid These Online Professionalism Mistakes

Posted on by Louis Fine

Your medical practice is thriving, and you have earned the trust and respect of thousands of patients. Except for one. This former patient was very unhappy with the care you provided. So dissatisfied was this patient that he decided to put up a scathing one-star review of you and your practice on Yelp! and other websites; a review rife with insults and factually incorrect statements. You cannot abide by this unjustified stain on your reputation, so you respond to the patient’s review on the very same sites. You share some of your own choice words about the patient, and you also correct the record about the care you provided. But in doing so, you also revealed confidential medical information about the patient, who promptly informs the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) about your breach of confidentiality. Instead of letting the patient’s rant go unanswered, you now have to answer a complaint from the IDFPR that threatens your license and your practice.

The foregoing, based on an actual case, is just one example of the traps doctors can fall into with their use of the internet and social media. Over the past decade, breaches of online professionalism standards have been the subject of increasing scrutiny and disciplinary action by state medical boards.

A national survey of state medical boards revealed that the most common online activities that led to disciplinary proceedings against physicians were:

  • inappropriate patient communication online, including sexual misconduct
  • use of the internet for inappropriate practice, such as internet prescribing without an established clinical relationship
  • online misrepresentation of credentials
  • online violations of patient confidentiality
  • failure to reveal conflicts of interest online
  • online derogatory patient remarks
  • online depiction of intoxication

Most boards indicated that incidents had been reported to them by patients or their families, although reporting by other physicians was common as well.

While the Illinois Medical Practice does not list any online conduct as one of the 43 specified bases for physician discipline, it doesn’t need to. As the authors of the above-referenced study put it, the problems that doctors get into with the internet and social media are just “online manifestations of serious and common violations offline, including substance abuse, sexual misconduct, and abuse of prescription privileges.”

In 2013, the American College of Physicians and the Federation of State Medical Boards issued guidelines on online medical professionalism. It addresses many aspects of social media and internet use by physicians, but the single best recommendation may be this:

Pause before posting. Trust yourself, but pause before posting to reflect on how best to protect and respect patients, their privacy, and your professional relationships and responsibilities. It is helpful to think of the use of social media as a public speaking arrangement in which everything is recorded and shared.

Louis R. Fine: Chicago Physician License Defense Attorney

Throughout my career, I have been protecting the livelihoods and professional futures of physicians and other health care providers before the IDFPR, combining insight and experience with zealous and strategic advocacy.

The moment you are contacted by IDFPR or learn that you are under investigation is the moment that you should contact me. I will immediately begin communicating with IDFPR prosecutors and work with you to develop the strategy best suited to achieving the goal of an efficient, cost-effective outcome that avoids any adverse action. Together, we will protect your Illinois physician’s license and get you back to your patients and your career.

Please give me a call at (312) 236-2433 or fill out my online form to arrange for your free initial consultation. I look forward to meeting with you.

A Small Number of Big Problems Make Up the Most Complaints Against Illinois Doctors

Posted on by Louis Fine

There are 43 specified grounds for disciplinary action against Illinois doctors set forth in the state’s Medical Practice Act. Running afoul of any one of those grounds can result in career-altering action by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR). More often than not, the genesis of disciplinary proceedings against Illinois physicians come from citizen complaints. And while a typical year will see at least one complaint involving each of the statutory bases for discipline, some violations, as Orwell might say, are more equal than others. Knowing what the most common complaints are can help Illinois doctors redouble their efforts at avoiding mistakes or misunderstandings that can put their practices at risk.

If You Practice Medicine in Illinois, You Will (Likely) Be the Subject of a Complaint

Over the course of a career, even the most outstanding doctors are likely to face at least one complaint about their conduct by a patient or other individual, whether in the form of a filing with the IDFPR or in a civil medical malpractice complaint. The Board receives approximately 3,000 complaints against Illinois doctors every single year. The majority of those complaints are citizen complaints submitted in writing or through the IDFPR website. Complaints also come from other state agencies, from licensing and regulatory boards in other states, and as mandatory reports from professional liability insurers, professional associates, hospitals, or other health care institutions.

Unprofessional Conduct and Substandard Care Lead the Pack

According to IDFPR statistics, 75 percent of the total number of complaints it receives arise from the same 10 alleged violations of the Act. The most common complaint against Illinois physicians received by the Department are allegations of “unprofessional conduct,” or, as set forth in the Act, “engaging in dishonorable, unethical or unprofessional conduct of a character likely to deceive, defraud or harm the public.”

Within this broad and somewhat ambiguous definition, some of the more common examples of “unprofessional conduct” that can lead to the suspension or revocation of a physician’s license or other disciplinary action include:

  • Physician abuse of a patient
  • Inadequate record keeping
  • Falsifying records
  • Fraudulent insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid claims
  • False or misleading advertising
  • Prescribing drugs in excess or without legitimate reason
  • Failing to meet continuing medical education requirements
  • Dishonesty
  • Conviction of a felony
  • Delegating the practice of medicine to an unlicensed individual

Complaints about the quality of care provided by a doctor grievances – substandard care, improper care, misdiagnosis, delayed treatment, incompetence, etc.-  are right behind allegations of unprofessional conduct. Sexual misconduct and substance abuse issues also are the subject of an alarmingly high number of complaints to the Department.

Whatever the basis of a complaint, and regardless of whether you believe it has any merit, if the IDFPR has become involved, you need an experienced Illinois physician licensure defense attorney to become involved.  With so much at stake, trying to go it alone before the Department is a mistake from which you may never recover.

Louis R. Fine: Chicago Physician License Defense Attorney

Throughout my career, I have been protecting the livelihoods and professional futures of physicians and other health care providers before the IDFPR, combining insight and experience with zealous and strategic advocacy.

The moment you are contacted by IDFPR or learn that you are under investigation is the moment that you should contact me. I will immediately begin communicating with IDFPR prosecutors and work with you to develop the strategy best suited to achieving the goal of an efficient, cost-effective outcome that avoids any adverse action. Together, we will protect your Illinois physician’s license and get you back to your patients and your career.

Please give me a call at (312) 236-2433 or fill out my online form to arrange for your free initial consultation. I look forward to meeting with you.

Doctors Without Borders: Illinois Becomes 11th State to Streamline Multi-State Physician Licensure

Posted on by Louis Fine

Illinois physicians seeking to practice in other states as well as out-of-state physicians looking to practice in Illinois will have an easier time doing so now that Illinois has joined 10 other states in enacting the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Act (the “Act”).

Simplified Licensure Process

Signed into law on July 20th by Gov. Bruce Rauner, the Act allows physicians who wish to practice in any of the states participating in the Compact to obtain multiple state licenses without going through the process of submitting a formal application or providing the same materials to each participating state medical board.

An “Interstate Medical Licensure Compact Commission,” which will be formed now that a sufficient number of states have joined the Compact, will collect applicable fees and transmit the physician’s information and licensure fees to the additional states in which the physician seeks to practice.  Those states would then make the licensure decision.

Promoting Telemedicine

The driving force behind the Compact is the increasing use of telehealth technology by doctors and other health care professionals who are generally prohibited from delivering health care services through telemedicine to patients in states in which they are not licensed. By streamlining the licensing process and decreasing redundancy, the Compact aims to remove barriers to the use of telehealth in patient care.

11 States and Counting

In addition to Illinois, the other states that are currently members of the Compact are:

  • Alabama
  • Idaho
  • Iowa
  • Minnesota
  • Montana
  • Nevada
  • South Dakota
  • Utah
  • West Virginia
  • Wyoming

The number of states participating in this arrangement is only expected to grow, as legislation is currently pending in Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Wisconsin and Vermont that would bring those states into the Compact’s fold.

Louis Fine: Your Chicago Physician and Health Care Licensure Attorney

As a former chief prosecuting attorney and administrative law judge for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), and with experience both prosecuting and defending doctors and other health care professionals before IDFPR, I understand how the Department handles licensure matters, why it decides to pursue investigations, how it approaches negotiations, and how to handle formal proceedings in a way that gives my clients the best possible chance of a positive outcome.

If you are a physician or health care profession and have questions or concerns about a licensure matter, please give me a call at (312) 236-2433 or fill out my online form to arrange for your free initial consultation. I look forward to meeting with you.