This list of worst doctors came to me via email, and I thought it was too good not to post. The origin of this is a Medscape article written by Lisa Pevtzow, Deborah Flapan, Fredy Perojo and Darbe Rotach. Please read the Medscape article in full. It's a gem. The Medscape article shows pictures of these offenders.
Here is a summary of the worst doctors:
1) In July, Farid Fata, MD, was sentenced to 45 years in prison in Detroit for administering excessive or unnecessary chemotherapy to 543 patients. Some of them he deliberately misdiagnosed with cancer. In addition to enduring needless chemotherapy, the patients suffered anguish at the possibility of death. The massive criminal scheme netted at least $17 million from Medicare and private insurers.
2) Ophthalmologist David Ming Pon, MD, was found guilty in October of cheating Medicare by pretending to perform procedures on patients who did not need them. A federal jury convicted Dr. Pon on 20 counts of healthcare fraud. The scam netted Dr. Pon more than $7 million, according to the Department of Justice.
3) Joseph Mogan III, MD, was sentenced to about eight years in prison in March for operating two "pill mills" in suburban New Orleans. He gave out illegal prescriptions for narcotics and other controlled substances on a cash-and-carry basis. Dr. Mogan might have received a longer sentence had he not previously testified against a former New Orleans police officer who gave advice on how to operate under the radar of law enforcement. Prosecutors said the officer helped Dr. Mogan and his co-operator, Tiffany Miller, because Miller provided sexual favors and thousands of dollars in cash.
4) Dr. Aria Sabit pleaded guilty in a federal district court in Detroit in May to conspiring to receive kickbacks from a medical technology company. In 2010, Apex Medical Technologies, which distributes spinal surgery instruments, told the surgeon that, if he invested $5,000 in the company and used its hardware, he would share in the revenue. Ultimately, he received $439,000 from his investment. Dr. Sabit also pleaded guilty to stealing $11 million in insurance proceeds after billing Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers.
5) A Virginia jury awarded a patient $500,000 in June after an anesthesiologist made mocking and derogatory comments, which the patient accidentally recorded on a cellphone while he was sedated. The case inflamed the public after the Washington Post reported the story. The recording captured anesthesiologist Tiffany Ingham, MD, commenting on the patient’s penis and making fun of him. The surgical team also entered a fake diagnosis of hemorrhoids into his medical record.
6) A former researcher at Iowa State University was sentenced to 57 months in prison in July for systematically falsifying data to make an experimental HIV vaccine look effective. The researcher, Dong Pyou Han, PhD, was supposed to inject rabbits with a vaccine and test their sera for HIV antibodies. Dr. Han not only gave the head of the lab false test results about the vaccine, but he also injected the rabbits with human antibodies.
7) The Washington Medical Quality Assurance Commissions suspended the license of Arthur Zilberstein, MD, in June for sexting from the operating room. The commission said Dr. Zilberstein "compromised patient safety due to his preoccupation with sexual matters" during surgery. He was charged with exchanging sexually explicit texts during surgeries when he was the responsible anesthesiologist, improperly accessing medical-record imaging for sexual gratification and having sexual encounters in his office.
8) An Ohio cardiologist was convicted in September of billing Medicare and other insurers for $7.2 million in unnecessary tests and procedures. Dr. Harold Persaud put lives at risk by performing stent insertions, catheterizations, imaging tests and referrals for coronary artery bypass graft surgery that were not medically warranted, according to prosecutors.
Alas, such patient mistreatment and fraud is not that rare, as my readers.
