Here is a letter from Eric Dover, MD, on the deliberate attacks on doctors by their Boards of Medicine. This was in response to an Oregon ABC affiliate, KATU, media article by Wright Gazaway on Mar.1, 2023 pertaining to the revoking of physician licenses being nationally controlled instead of state controlled. Dr. Dover is an advocate for doctors who have been indiscriminately targeted by their state boards of medicine for removal from practice.

Mr. Gazaway

Where do I begin?

After reading your article it was clear neither you nor Wyden have any clue as to what you are talking about. In reality, Wyden knows the score, so all I can assume is he doesn’t care if he hurts physicians, their families or patients.

Wyden is a big part of the problem regarding the discipline issue you wrote about. He pushed through the HealthCare Quality Improvement Act of 1986 (HCQIA) which has allowed state medical boards and the 501(c)6 Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) to have absolute control over physician licensees. Typically, a nucleus of about 4-5 people at medical boards determine who they ‘discipline’. It is typically an AAG from the DOJ, the Executive director, the Medical Director, the investigator for the case, and a Board member. The rest of the board members are a rubber stamp. They also revoke licenses of those they ‘don’t like’ for any reason. Licensees are defenseless, because medical boards control the entire process. As far as ‘legal representation’ for physicians, there is no ‘effective’ representation available. Legal representation at the medical board consists of a lawyer “plea bargaining” on behalf of a licensee with the medical board. This concentration of power at medical boards allows them to full-on assault physician licensees, but at the same time allows medical boards to protect their friends, partners, associates, etc. from medical board disciplinary action for horrendous medical outcomes or criminal actions.

HCQIA has made it very easy for entities such as medical boards or hospitals to get rid of competitors or individuals they dislike for any reason. In the 1980s, a federal case was filed in Portland Federal District Court that involved a ‘physician competitor’ being attacked by the Astoria Hospital Executive Board in Astoria, OR and the Oregon Medical Board (OMB). There was a member on the Executive hospital board and a member of the OMB that were from the Astoria Clinic whom Dr. Timothy Patrick had snubbed regarding employment. The case went all the way to the SCOTUS. PATRICK v. BURGET, 486 U.S. 94 (1988) https: //caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/486/94.html. Dr. Patrick won his case at the District Court and Supreme Court. This is the last time a physician was able to protect themselves from a medical board. While this case wound its way through the Federal courts, HCQIA was put together by Wyden. He had full knowledge of how this would ultimately affect the practice of medicine in the United States.

Physician licensees have no constitutional or due process rights. Medical boards control the entire process; they act as the investigator, jury, judge and executioner – a completely closed loop so that only their story of the situation is given to the media, general public, NPDB and the FSMB Data Bank. Medical boards control every aspect of the sham hearing process, which in reality is a sham trial to revoke the licensee’s license, i.e. their property. Licensees have no access to ‘effective’ counsel because medical boards like the OMB have control over lawyers who are involved with representing licensees. The control mechanism is the lawyer’s access to investigators, administrators, lawyers, etc. at the medical board as they plea bargain on behalf of their client. If a licensee is scheduled for a hearing, they have already lost. Medical boards never lose a sham hearing, and why would they when they make the rules and run the show without any oversight. The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) at the sham hearing is just for pretenses. The ALJ typically comes down on the side of the medical board, but just in case they don’t, most medical boards can simply overrule the ALJ’s decision.

Medical boards claim they have at least sovereign immunity, if not absolute immunity, as a result of Wyden’s HCQIA. The state courts and lower federal courts had looked upon the immunity issue similarly up until the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v FTC 135 S. Ct. 1101 (2015) decision which defined the requirements needed for board members to obtain sovereign immunity from lawsuit.

Physicians are being heavily disciplined, don’t think otherwise. There are physicians who do bad things – no doubt. Unfortunately, the system many times chooses to ‘discipline’ licensees who have harmed no one. Every year, the equivalent of almost 20% of each year’s graduating class has their license revoked and/or their careers irreversibly crapped on. That data comes straight from the FSMB’s website. Do you believe that the medical schools and residency programs are doing that poor of a job selecting candidates? I doubt that. It’s more likely medical boards and the FSMB harvesting their own for monetary gain.

There are 350 to 400 plus physician suicides every year, most being tied to current or past medical board cases that have robbed physicians of their dignity and income. I personally know two physicians who have committed suicide.

Medical boards are under the direction of the FSMB.

The FSMB is a tax exempt 501(c)6. The FSMB states it’s lobbying for medical boards, but in the past, they have been open to corporate influence. They have legal and legislative programs to push their medical board agenda. This makes it very easy for them to take in ‘donated’ money and spin their lobbying in a beneficial way for a ‘donor’.

We know of at least one instance of the FSMB taking millions of dollars from a drug manufacturer. It involved Purdue Pharmaceuticals and Oxycontin. Senators Grassley and Bauchus of the Senate Finance Committee opened an investigation because of public concern about opiate prescribing and deaths. The entirety of the investigation was later sealed from the public by Senate Finance Committee members Grassley and Wyden. After the investigation, the medical boards began attacking chronic pain physicians for prescribing too many opiates. Pain patients have suffered severely

Once a physician’s private property medical license is revoked, they will never work in any capacity in medicine again. The physician can’t get licensed in any other state. The FSMB notifies every state board about the licensee’s revocation, in particular those states that the licensee is additionally licensed in. I know a licensee who simply had his license restricted for opiate prescribing. He has no idea who made the complaint or what the complaint was. His license was restricted 9 years ago. It was only supposed to be restricted for 5 years. His twin boys who were 5 years old at the time are now 14. They suffer from PTSD and anxiety. Their parents divorced as a result of financial and emotional stress. Their father can only find minimum wage work, has no car and lives in a rusty RV as a homeless man. The State of Oregon wouldn’t even let him drive a school bus because of the OMB license restriction. He eventually got a medical license in Utah, but no one will hire him, he can’t get hospital privileges, no one will sell him medical malpractice insurance and insurance companies will not contract with him to see their patients. Every ‘medical’ entity has the ability to go to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) and FSMB Data Bank and find out anything related to the physician licensee that these data banks have available. So, ‘Shuck and Jive’ Wyden’s and your take on physician discipline is nowhere near reality. Question, why is physician ‘discipline’ suddenly an ‘issue’?

I know many physician licensees from Oregon and across the United States that would be happy to relate their medical board stories to you. Medical boards and the FSMB especially love to attack and revoke Integrative Medicine physicians (MDs or DOs who incorporate both allopathic and naturopathic medicine). The FSMB hates Integrative Medicine physicians and I have their internal document that specifically states that they are directing medical boards to attack and remove these physicians from medical practice. The reason: The public makes more visits and spends more money out of pocket for Integrative Medicine physicians than allopathic primary care physicians. As usual, it’s about money. The medical boards have had a hard on for Integrative Medicine physicians since this document. See (SPECIAL REPORT BY FSMB ON INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE DOCTORS).

If you’d like to know more about me, the OMB, the FSMB, other licensees, my published chapter “Functioning as a Physician in a Regulatory Environment [Controlled by Medical Boards and the Medical Industrial Complex] (January 2016) and numerous documents, go to drdovervsomb.weebly.com

Respectfully,

Eric Dover, MD