After a Two-Year Battle, Holistic Psychiatrist’s Stunning Win over Local Board of Physicians

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http://aahf.nonprofitsoapbox.com/index.php?option=com_content & task=view & id=714 & Itemid= After a Two-Year Battle, Holistic Psychiatrist’s Stunning Win over Local Board of Physicians Setting a new precedent—the first decision of its kind in the state’s history—the Maryland Board of Physicians has completely dismissed the case against Alice W. Lee-Bloem, MD, a holistic psychiatrist. Dr. Lee-Bloem practices orthomolecular psychiatry and energy medicine. The Maryland Board began peer review proceedings against Dr. Lee-Bloem after receiving a letter of complaint from a patient's ex-partner, who had never been involved in the patient's treatment. The ex-partner had a hostile relationship with the patient and objected to the patient's preference for integrative medicine. The patient immediately wrote a letter to the Board to ask them to drop all proceedings against Dr. Lee-Bloem, clarifying all misrepresentations in the ex-partner's letter of complaint. But the Maryland Board chose to ignore the patient's request and moved forward with the peer review proceedings in August, 2006. The Board’s actions were suspect at best: • First, in an apparent attempt to block access to important information from the patient and to minimize the importance of the patient's satisfaction with Dr. Lee-Bloem's medical care, the Board prohibited the state peer reviewers from interviewing the patient—a position that the lead peer reviewer in the case openly derided. • Second, because the first two peer reviewers differed in their opinions about the case, a third peer reviewer was called in to break the tie. He turned out to be the last treating physician before Dr. Lee-Bloem took over—the very doctor whose treatment the patient rejected in favor of orthomolecular psychiatry. He expressed in court that he personally felt that he did not have a conflict of interest in this case and thus he did not feel compelled to disclose this information to the Board. • Third, none of the peer reviewers had any training or clinical experience in orthomolecular psychiatry or energy medicine. This, however, did not prevent two of them from believing that they could judge a holistic psychiatrist's treatment decisions, and they proceeded to do so without any consideration for or understanding of the role of nutrition in mental health. • And fourth, the Board deliberately and repeatedly misrepresented the patient's psychiatric condition in its own papers and in the documents given to the peer reviewers. Despite these various manipulations, the Board failed in its attempt to support any of its charges, and the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who heard the case, Geraldine A. Klauber of the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings, dismissed all charges on September 11, 2008. She stated that as a matter of law, the Board of Physicians could not prosecute the practice of alternative medicine and energy medicine through the peer review process. Grasping at straws to keep the prosecution alive, the Board then charged Dr. Lee-Bloem with violating the “standard of care” of that one patient. But after a three-day trial, the ALJ wrote a 50-page decision stating that the Board had no legal grounds to prosecute Dr. Lee-Bloem in the first place, having failed to define what the “standard of care” was, let alone convince her of any violations of it. The Maryland Board, however, has had a history of ignoring the ALJ's decisions regarding alternative medicine practices if they conflicted with the Board's agenda. In addition, over the years, the Maryland Board has developed a reputation for being hostile towards holistic medicine, and has been notorious for removing licenses from clinicians practicing integrative medicine in Maryland even when the ALJ has dismissed the charges! In this case, however, Dr. Lee-Bloem also sued the Board for violation of her due process rights. With the involvement of the civil courts, the Maryland Board, for the first time, had to answer to judges and laws outside of the administrative setting. Without any evidence to support their charges before the civil courts, and lacking any legal grounds for charges according to the ALJ, the Maryland Board had little choice but to finally, and begrudgingly, dismiss all charges on February 5, 2009, without any conditions or probation. AAHF applauds Dr. Lee-Bloem’s victory. She defended integrative medicine against a state organization that had every advantage, yet won—hands down. We wish that this were an isolated story, but unfortunately it is not. Integrative physicians are being harassed and threatened with loss of license all across the US. Often integrative doctors do not realize how vital it is to seek competent counsel immediately, before speaking to hostile boards or examiners and especially before signing agreements. Even when integrative physicians are well prepared for the unfair attacks, often the legal costs represent an insuperable obstacle to winning and a lifetime’s education and work may be lost in the process. =====In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.