Dr. Mo talking to his employer’s HR department: “I’m being investigated by the medical board and wanted to speak to our legal team regarding this.”
Employer’ HR lead: “Sorry, we don’t cover employees for medical board investigations. It doesn’t have to do with you resigning or being a per diem. It’s just not something we offer in our malpractice policy.”
Dr. Mo: “That’s odd, I wish I knew that before. But thank you.”
Dr. Mo’s private lawyer: “So I’m pretty expensive and since you’re a friend of a friend I would advise you to ask your employer to represent you.”
“Oh you already asked them? What do you mean they don’t offer medical board representation? I have never heard of that. I’ll contact them myself because you really want to cover the cost of this through your malpractice benefits.”
“Hey I talked to your employer’s legal counsel and they do have malpractice coverage for this but won’t be covering you. Sorry that’s all I can tell you.”
Dr. Mo talking to lead counsel of employer: “Hi, so I’m getting some conflicting information. It was damn near impossible to get your contact information but I wanted to see if I can be represented by you guys to defend myself against the medical board.”
Employer’s lead counsel: “Yes, you do have malpractice for such cases but we have decided not to cover you because it’s not in our best interest. And you wouldn’t want us to cover you because it wouldn’t be in your best interest.”
Dr. Mo: “Wait, wtf? So I have like a medical malpractice that’s conditional on the case-in-question being favorable for both parties? Off the top of my head I’m having a really hard time coming up with a legal case that’s ever favorable for any party.”
Employer’s lawyer nonchalantly: “After our own investigation’s results we have decided not to cover you. Sorry, it’s nothing personal.”
Dr. Mo: “Right, I heard that the first time. Wait, you guys already reached a conclusion regarding the internal investigation? Was anyone going to share that with me? Who is in charge of the case and could I get their contact info?”
Employer’s lawyer: “Actually I was in charge of it so you can talk to me.”
Dr. Mo waiting for her to talk and realizing that she might need a slight nudge: “So….. could you tell me about it?”
Employer’s lawyer immediately replying: “Sorry, I don’t recall the details of the case.”
Dr. Mo wondering if this lawyer recently suffered an anoxic brain injury: “But you guys were collecting information from me up until a few weeks ago. But I guess I can understand that you must have a lot of cases and not recall. Would you be able to look up the details and results from perhaps a document or some other recording of it? You know, the kind of things we use to help refresh our memories? Perhaps someone chiseled something on a stone block or inked something on a roll of papyrus? Oh, or a computer perhaps?”
Employer’s lawyer: “Sure, give me a moment to look that up….. Yea, I looked and couldn’t find anything. But we did find you to be at fault.”
Dr. Mo: “So you don’t recall the case, you have no documentation of it, but you know I was found to be at fault. Just so I’m not losing my mind, could you tell me what the case was about just so I know we’re on the same page?”
Employer’s lawyer: “I believe it was something about you running your own medical practice outside of Kaiser?”
Dr. Mo picking his jaw and shoulders off the floor: “Yea, no. Wrong doctor. That wasn’t me at all. Is there someone else perhaps that I could talk to about this? Or do you want me to spell my name again?”
Employer’s lawyer slightly passive aggressive: “No sorry, I’m the only person you can talk to about this and I have given you all the information that I can give you.”
6 replies on “Employer Lies About Your Medical Malpractice Coverage”
I feel like this is legal malpractice. I would ask the other lawyer if what they did was allowed.
I’ll definitely pursue this in the future. I am curious how they reached the decision they did and how I or a physician colleague can protect themselves against something like this in the future.
So bogus man. An internal investigation leads to a formal complaint to the board? Or did the RN manager call the board about your case before the internal investigation? Why didn’t KP’s investigation involve you so they could truly get the facts? None of this is adding up dude
The internal investigation got reported by the nurse manager to the medical board – which sort of defeats the purpose of an internal investigation. It seems that KP brushed it all under the rug and so it leaves me to wonder what the board wants to do with it. After all that huffing and puffing does the board want to take my license away or just slap me on the wrist? I’ll let you know.
I a 64 and have practiced 29 years. I am ABIM certified and current with credentials I am cautious, conservative, and reliable. I don’t even get speeding tickets. I do not even drink. I do not abuse substances, and I do not know any substance abusers. Despite all this I was falsely accused of substance abuse. At first I thought reason and my good record would prevail. The Board found NO evidence in my primary care records, or in my prescribing practices or pharmacy records. The State PHP ruled I was not a substance abuser. A neurologist, a toxicologist and 15 colleagues supported my claims. It did no good. I am not allowed to practice. Now the Board wants me to spend another 10K for an evaluation at Vanderbilt. I have no right to a female physician. I went to the public board meeting twice. I was shocked that Board members openly referred to me as manipulative, and a liar who needed a polygraph test, even though my attorneys, not I , communicated with them. At this point, I guess I will give up. I have no idea why this happened to me or why another doctor claimed I was a substance abuser, but I am screwed. It is preposterous that anyone would even believe such a thing, but many do including even former colleagues.
I needed to work another 6 years. I am too old to retrain in anything. I think it is outrageous that US citizens can be subjected to expensive unnecessary tests 1500 miles away . The Board now says it can order as many exams as it wants. I know what that means–they intend to financially bankrupt me or make me falsely allocute, whichever comes first. Eventually the Board will get someone to say I could be a substance abuser, and my license will be revoked anyway.
To demonstrate how ridiculous this is, one of the public members was screeching today that I had no right to manipulate the Board. This same woman was accused of plagiarism by the State University, and her only contribution to the world appears to be party favors and doggy beds.
The Medical Boards need to be impeached. They are cannibalizing their own licensees. I see now why people shoot themselves in the heads. The worst is their threat that they will further shame and humiliate myself and my family by the press release they are planning.
So I am contacting my state representatives, and I may issue my own press release.
This is really a hard comment to read because I can only imagine what you have been through that past few months or years that you have had to deal with this. Contact me at DrMo@digitalnomadphysician.com anytime and I’ll give you my cell, we can chat and talk shit about how punitive this process is – I’m free to chat anytime.
I hope my commentary on what you shared doesn’t minimize anything you said or distract from how horrible of a situation you are in. Before I say anything, I wanted to say I love you man because you’re my fellow medical professional colleague and you’ve been in this game longer than me so I can imagine how hard you’ve fought to get as far as you have. I’m sorry you’re dealing with this and no matter what the medical board publishes about you or says about you, you’re someone who has bent over backwards to help the sick, nobody can take that away from you.
From a professional perspective, what I was told by the Boundaries Course I was forced to take is that your competitors or whoever doesn’t like you can readily report you to the medical board and make up quite a few things about you – they can even do it anonymously.
The medical board gives out licenses to whomever they choose and they don’t have to follow the same legal process you and I are accustomed to when dealing with violations of the law. As they have said to you repeatedly, I’m sure, having a medical license is a privilege and they can take it away anytime and the burden of proof is on us, the licensees, and not them.
So if they think we are heathens and should burn then that’s the track they’ll pursue. I mean seriously, how can you prove to someone you’re NOT a druggie, or that you’re not a sexual deviant, or any other accusation for that matter. Guilty until proven innocent is illogical.
I hope you that you wind your way through this maze. I hope that you give the medical board the ultimate middle finger by not paying to renew your medical license and move on to something else completely. Why should we be somewhere where we’re not wanted? I guess for some it makes sense to stick it out and fight for it – I hope you’ll fight for what’s right for you regardless of how hard they will try to smear your name.
In fact, punishing you publicly is all the medical board can do to prove to their infantalized public, whom they represent, that they are doing something. That they are powerful. And that they can punish even these powerful doctors.
Wishing you the best on this fucked up journey my dear friend.
-Dr Mo