If you are currently working as a physician in the Greater Pittsburgh area, including towns such as Hempfield, Penn Hills, Mount Lebanon, and Cranberry, you already know how special the area is. You’ve spent years getting to where you are now, not only in class but in your clerkship and residency training – not to mention the battery of tests you’ve had to study for and pass along the way, from the SAT or ACT, to the MCAT, then the USMLE and possibly more, depending on your practice area.
Your physician’s license is probably your most valuable asset, both in terms of the amount of time you have spent earning it and the career benefits it offers you. That is why if someone has filed a misconduct complaint against you with the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine, you need to take active steps to protect your rights and defend yourself against the allegations. The LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team is here to help you do that. Call us at 888.535.3686, or use our online contact form to reach out to us. We will schedule a confidential consultation so that you can tell us about the allegations you are facing, and we can explain the ways we can help.
Physicians in Greater Pittsburgh
The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that there are thousands of licensed physicians living and working in Pittsburgh, with even more doing so in the surrounding area. Depending on the practice area, physicians are paid very well compared to the average annual mean wage of jobs that the BLS tracks: from about $170,000 per year to more than $380,000 per year, depending on the specialty, compared to the average for all tracked professions of about $63,000 per year.
While the pay is great, it also means that there is more to lose when it comes to facing discipline from the State Board of Medicine. Losing your license, or even being suspended for any period of time, will also mean you won’t be paid, and it can be almost impossible to find another job that will pay as well.
Of course, not all Board discipline involves revoking or suspending physician licenses. But other forms of discipline can also have a less direct effect on your career. Public discipline, such as a warning letter or probation, may allow you to continue to practice, but will also appear on your state records, so that anyone who searches for you on the Department of State’s website will be able to see that you’ve been disciplined. Disciplinary actions taken by the Board (and other licensing boards) are also published on a monthly basis, which allows the public (including local news outlets) to learn who the Board has disciplined and the type of discipline imposed.
Your reputation is important to you, no matter where you are working as a physician. But if your practice involves direct contact with patients who choose you as their physician, your reputation is even more important. Someone doing research looking for the best physician in their part of Greater Pittsburgh for a particular specialty can easily find not only reviews of you posted by other patients, but also learn whether you’ve been disciplined for anything in the past. That information sometimes shows up on commercial review sites, and of course, as noted above, it can be found using the Department of State’s search tool.
In addition, even a sanction of probation that technically leaves your license and ability to practice intact can have other consequences. In particular, it may result in you losing your credentialing with network insurance providers, loss of your malpractice insurance, and loss of hospital privileges.
With so much at stake, it makes sense to do everything you can to protect your rights and to defend yourself if a misconduct complaint has been filed against you. The LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team can help with that. Our experienced attorneys know how important your license is to you, and how devastating it can be to lose the ability to practice medicine even for a short period of time, or to be placed on probation for any length of time at all. When you work with us, we will be there for you from day one, explaining what is happening at each stage of the investigation and disciplinary process; making sure you meet your obligations to cooperate; acting as your representative when communicating with the Board in connection with the allegations made against you; and working for you to resolve the matter in a way that protects your license and your ability to practice medicine in the Greater Pittsburgh area.
Disciplinary Actions Against Physicians in the Greater Pittsburgh Area
The Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine is focused on patient safety. When a physician is accused of acting in a way that could compromise the health or welfare of the public, the Board will investigate and, where appropriate, sanction the physician. While the Board can discipline for a wide range of misconduct, Pennsylvania law specifically points out certain types of misconduct that the Board has the power to discipline a physician for. These include:
-
Disclosure of patient confidential information to someone who is not authorized to receive it
-
Violating statutory standards of practice for physicians
-
Incompetent treatment of a patient
-
Performing a medical procedure that the physician knows they are not competent to perform
-
Providing a patient with an unconditional guarantee that a particular medical service or treatment will work
-
Deceptive advertising about the physician’s medical practice
-
Practicing medicine fraudulently
-
Repeated acts of negligence in connection with the physician’s medical practice
-
Allowing someone who is not licensed to perform actions that require one
-
Continuing to practice medicine after the expiration, suspension, or revocation of their physician’s license
-
Illegally using, dispensing, or prescribing controlled substances
-
Treating a patient using a “secret method” that the physician refuses to disclose to the Board upon the Board’s request
-
Charging a patient or an insurance company for procedures that the physician did not perform
-
Harassing, abusing, or intimidating a patient
-
Abandoning a patient – meaning withdrawing medical care without giving the patient enough time to secure replacement care
-
Failing to provide the patient with their medical records upon request
-
Committing an act of “moral turpitude,” which can include a wide range of acts, ranging from making misrepresentations to the Board in connection with securing a medical license, to engaging in consensual or nonconsensual sex with a patient or a patient’s family member, or other acts
-
Failing to report to the Board, discipline imposed on the physician by another state’s licensing agency
Not every complaint made to the Board, however, will result in an investigation or the physician being disciplined. Many complaints are about issues that the Board does not have jurisdiction over. For example, billing disputes that do not involve allegations of fraud will generally not result in a Board investigation or discipline. And claims that the physician or a staff member was rude to a patient, or made them wait too long past their appointment time, will typically not be taken up by the Board.
That said, there are, of course, a number of misconduct complaints that the Board does have jurisdiction over. In those cases, the Board will typically appoint an investigator to look into the matter. Investigations can take months, and will usually involve the investigator interviewing both the person who made the complaint and the physician they named. Other people who may have information relevant to the matter may also be interviewed. The investigator may also ask to see patient records, and may subpoena records where the patient’s consent to release them can’t be secured. In some cases, the investigator may ask to see texts, messages, and emails from the physician and others who may have information relevant to the situation.
The interview can be particularly important. As a physician, you are probably used to being in control of the narrative when you are working. You are the one asking the questions, gathering the information, and making decisions based on that information and your own education and experience. When you’re sitting across the table from the Board’s investigator, however, the shoe is on the other foot. You are the one who is the focus of the investigator’s attention. You are the person whose answers may decide how the Board will treat the misconduct allegations made against you.
Your attorney from the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team can prepare you for your interview and even be with you when it happens. It can be difficult to shift your focus to being the person who is answering the questions instead of the one who is asking them. But when you’re working with one of our experienced attorneys, you’ll have a good idea in advance what kinds of questions you can expect, and how best to make sure you are giving clear and accurate answers.
When the investigation is complete, the Board will receive a report from the investigator and will decide whether to move forward with an Order to Show Cause against you that accuses you of misconduct and proposes a sanction against you. In some cases, depending on the information in the investigator’s report, the Board may choose to take no action on the matter – the best result in terms of your license, of course. In others, the Board may send you a private warning letter that will not become part of your public record – also, in terms of your license status, a good result.
If you receive an Order to Show Cause, things have gotten to the serious stage. That’s where there is the real potential for sanctions that could affect your livelihood and your future. That’s where you want to have an experienced member of the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team by your side – if one of our attorneys is not already working with you.
Help During Disciplinary Investigations
As we’ve pointed out, there is a lot that goes into a disciplinary investigation, and the process can take many months. Being under investigation can be enormously distracting – on top of your intense work schedule, you also have to focus on making sure you understand what is happening with your case, and that you respond to the investigator’s requests in a fair and timely manner.
In some cases, we will also conduct our own investigation of the matter, especially if we get the sense that the Board’s investigator is not properly looking into the allegations but is more focused on information that can be used against our physician client.
In terms of preparing for your interview, we can help you look out for unclear or unfair questions. You want to make sure you understand each question before you answer it, and that you focus your response on just the question you were asked. There is no benefit to providing answers to questions that the investigator did not ask, or to guessing at what the investigator meant if you didn’t understand an unclear question. Working with the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team means you can prepare yourself for this new and stressful experience – and that we can be there with you when it happens, to be your backup and speak out when we hear an unfair or unclear question.
We will also help you respond to investigator requests for documents and other types of data. Tracking down, collecting, and providing this information can often be burdensome, and we will work with you to make sure it’s done efficiently, correctly, and on time. This alone can take a significant burden off your shoulders so that you can focus on your practice.
Finally, as your point of contact with the Board in connection with the investigation and disciplinary matter, we can be the ones to field the emails and occasional phone calls, making sure you are aware of what you need to do and when.
After the Investigation
If, after the investigation is complete, the Board decides to drop your matter or issue you a private letter of warning, that will be the end of the matter. On the other hand, if the Board issues an Order to Show Cause, you’ll need to respond within 30 days. We will work with you to prepare as complete and effective a response as possible.
Most cases are then resolved with a consent agreement between the physician and the Board. These can be negotiated, and our experienced attorneys know how to do that. Our goal is always to help you emerge from this process with as little effect on your license as possible, and we also understand the Board’s concerns. Our background and experience help us when it comes to negotiating consent agreements in physician discipline cases.
If your matter does not settle, it will go to a hearing. At the LLF National Law Firm, our Professional License Defense Team members are battle-tested; we know what the Board must prove for the allegations against you to hold up, and we also know how to effectively defend disciplinary cases at the hearing level. Rest assured that we will fight for your rights and will vigorously defend you at your hearing.
Potential Outcomes
Aside from the private warning letter, the Board can place you on probation for a period of time, or until you have completed one or more tasks assigned by the Board, such as remedial education or a course of treatment (for example, for substance abuse). The Board can also suspend your license, with similar conditions. Or, of course, your license can be revoked. Any public discipline, as we have noted above, will be reflected in Board reports and in the physician’s public record.
The LLF National Law Firm Can Defend Your License in the Greater Pittsburgh Area
No matter where you are practicing medicine in the Greater Pittsburgh Area – whether it’s Pittsburgh itself or a nearby town such as Monroeville, Shaler Township, Weirton, WV, or Steubenville, OH – the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team is ready to help you protect your license and your future if someone has filed a misconduct complaint against you. Our experienced attorneys understand the laws, regulations, rules, and procedures that apply in physician misconduct cases in Pennsylvania — as well as in West Virginia and Ohio, and the rest of the country.
You can count on us to help you through what can be an extremely stressful and time-consuming process, and to protect your rights and vigorously defend you and your license from start to finish.
You have invested so much in getting to where you are today. Let us help you protect that investment. The first step is to contact us. You can reach the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team at 888.535.3686, or by filling out our online contact form. We’ll schedule a confidential consultation where you can tell us about the allegations you are facing, and we can explain how we can help.