Invasion of Doctor-Patient Privacy Allowed by California Supreme Court

Medical Board Fishing Expedition Also Allowed

This is a case where doctor Alvin Lewis, an internist working out of Burbank California, filed a lawsuit against the Medical Board of California alleging they invaded his privacy and went on a fishing expedition, leading to him being charged by the medical board for excessively prescribing pain medications and placed on probation for three years. The original medical board complaint had to deal with a diet that he came up with–the “five bite diet,”–which ultimately led to a patient complaining to the medical board. The medical board looked into the complaint and found that doctor Alvin Lewis did nothing wrong and did not violate any rules in his care and treatment for the patient.

Instead of closing the complaint after no wrongdoing was found to have taken place; the medical board investigative team, consisting of a dully sworn police officer, DOJ prosecutor, and a deputy attorney general lawyer – started snooping into the prescription dispensing program to identify any patient that he had treated with prescription pain pills that they considered questionable or if the patients were drug addicts or had criminal backgrounds. This is what disturbed Dr. Lewis to the point of hiring an attorney to file a complaint against the medical board for going on a fishing expedition and tapping into confidential patient records. After snooping into perhaps hundreds and thousands of prescription records, they then identified several patients where they allege were prescribed painkillers excessively, by doctor Lewis.

The Supreme Court Made Its Decision

The Prescription Dispensing Monitoring Report is full of inaccuracies and criminal impressions. The state of California is a cesspool of fraudulent prescriptions and prescription thefts occurring on a daily basis. There is an equal, larger base of illegal painkillers from China and other countries that is actually responsible for 70 percent of the illegal prescriptions sold on the streets. The legal prescription written by doctors are not the major cause of overdose deaths and this information is not being communicated correctly to the people of this country. This lawsuit shows how the government is overreaching and abusing their authority by going into private patient files and conducting witch hunts to charge physicians and nurses.

The Supreme Court ruling was published in July of 2017. The Judge who made his opinion on the ruling stated that doctor Lewis case would have a some teeth to it if he would have referenced his concerns to a similar federal case that is still pending adjudication. The fishing exppeditions, needless to say, were not mentioned because the medical board has conducted these types of unconstitutional investigations for years. This is classic; somebody makes a complaint about dietary concerns to the medical board and they know the doctor did nothing wrong, but they prey into his business and patients to seek to cause harm to his practice and threaten his livelihood as a doctor. This is what a fishing expedition is by nature–an illegal practice of incriminating someone based on nothing and manufacturing a case.

How Can You Make A Difference?

• BECOME A MEMBER: Please support Doctors of Courage and our fight against unlawful Government abuse of doctors and healthcare providers nationwide. Your Membership helps to provide support for thousands of doctors who are being unlawfully jailed and stripped of their medical careers for treating patients with legal prescriptions.
• HELP MAKE CHANGE: Sign our petition requesting that Congress enact a Medical Board Civilian Police Review Committee law to deter medical board police and prosecutorial misconduct and hold these officials responsible for their actions. The most common crime against doctors made by the medical board police teams are “FALSE REPORTS” that police officers refer to as accusations. These are criminal actions by law enforcement and they are not held accountable for making false statements, perjury, and manufacturing evidence. A Civilian Review Committee will help stop these senseless acts against healthcare providers and restore justice and constitutional rights.

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Thank you!

Editor: Billy Earley,
Physician Assistant,
Healthcare Advocate,
National Adviser Black Doctors Matter
National Adviser American Pain Institute
Advocate World Sickle Cell Federation

Reference Articles

1. California Supreme Court: Medical board can examine prescription records

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-prescription-records-court-20170717-story.html

2. Court: California med board justified in prescription probe of Burbank doctor http://www.dailynews.com/2017/07/18/court-california-med-board-justified-in-prescription-probe-of-burbank-doctor/

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