Organized Medical Fraud at Wisconsin Protests

Elizabeth Kvach, MD

Many of the protesters at the Capitol in Wisconsin have been cheating their students by playing hooky, shafting their coworkers by skipping out, and defrauding the taxpayers by malingering. They did this so that they could attempt to overturn last November's elections while evading some of the consequences of abandoning their professional responsibilities.

Foolishly putting their medical licenses at risk, several left-wing physician activists were on site at the Capitol, perpetrating and facilitating fraud by indiscriminately handing out doctor's work excuses by the boxful.

This fraudulent political operation was apparently organized by faculty and medical residents at the University of Wisconsin Department of Family Medicine. All of the perpetrators postitively identified thus far (including the residency program director in Madision!) have been linked directly with UW DFM.

Here is the UW DFM Hall of Shame:

Kathy Oriel, MD

(video, bio/contact info)

James H Shropshire, MD

(video, bio/contact info)

Lou Sanner, MD, MSPH

(video, bio/contact info)

Hannah Keevil, MD

(note, bio/contact info)

Patrick McKenna, MD

(video, photo, bio/contact info)

Elizabeth Kvach, MD

(video, bio/contact info)

Stay tuned for updates as additional statist quacks are identified.

As an important side note, I'll point out that Dr. Hannah Keevil is a radical left-wing PNHP supporter (Physicians for a National Health Program).

I'd like to paraphrase the lefties at PNHP who scolded Congressman Andy Harris for making a smart rhetorical point about federally-funded health care coverage...

Our medical school admissions committees need to set the bar higher. All applicants accepted should meet the standard of possessing common decency. Too bad Oriel, Shropshire, Sanner, Keevil, McKenna and Kvach snuck through.

What these physicians have perpetrated is tantamount to a stain on their profession. It undermines the legitimacy of the confidential patient-doctor relationship. They probably violated a slew of HIPAA laws and regulations.

If I were one of their patients, I'd be wondering just how many ethical boundaries my doctor would be willing to trample. If I were a physician in training at the UW DFM, I'd be wondering if my supervising physician would be willing to trample ethical boundaries in order to make me pay for my unwillingness to toe the liberal line.

Update I: Radical quacks face investigation by Wisconsin Department of Regulation & Licensing

Update II: UW Health says "[t]hese charges are very serious and in response, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation, the UW Health entities that employ the physicians, have immediately launched an investigation of the reported behavior."

Update III: Organized Medical Fraud and the physicians' hall of shame discussed in theWashington Times (via Dr. Milton Wolf).

Update IV:

Six months after some UW Health doctors wrote questionable sick notes for protesters rallying against Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to limit public sector collective bargaining, UW-Madison hasn't finished disciplining the doctors.

The UW School of Medicine and Public Health has denied the State Journal's April 27 request for records of its investigation into the matter, saying a disciplinary hearing for one of the doctors hasn't occurred.

The medical school reviewed 22 UW Health doctors said to have been involved in giving medical excuses to protesters at the Capitol Feb. 19 for their absences from work or school. The Wisconsin Medical Society criticized the doctors' actions, saying they threatened the public's trust in the medical profession.

The medical school said April 26 that "several" of the doctors reviewed were found not to have participated, but their identities and those of the remaining doctors under investigation have not been disclosed.

Brian Vaughan, a university attorney, said last week that at least a dozen doctors received disciplinary action in late April or early May. He said he wasn't able to provide an exact tally...

In a separate investigation, the state Department of Safety and Professional Services reviewed 11 doctors said to have written sick notes and launched formal investigations into eight of them, the department announced on April 20.

Safety and Professional Services spokesman John Murray said last week that the investigations will be presented to the Medical Examining Board in October. If the board takes disciplinary action, the cases will be made public, Murray said.

(August 28, 2011)

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