The WORST physicians of 2011

In January, the BMJ published a series of 3 articles and editorials charging that the study published in The Lancet in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues linking the childhood measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine to a "new syndrome" of regressive autism and bowel disease was not just bad science but "an elaborate fraud." Wakefield was planning to market a diagnostic testing kit with expected yearly sales of 28 million pounds (US $43 million) as well as immunotherapeutics and a "safer single measles shot," for which he held a patent. The third article in the BMJ series claimed that the medical establishment "closed ranks" to protect Wakefield.

A federal bust of Medicare fraud in 8 cities in September yielded criminal charges against 91 individuals, including 10 physicians, who allegedly billed Medicare for $295 million in false claims with the help of kickbacks, illegal pain medication prescriptions, imaginary psychotherapy sessions, and other ploys. The US Department of Justice called the bust "the highest amount of false Medicare billings in a single takedown in Strike Force history

Rolando Arafiles Jr, MD, in November pled guilty to criminal charges in a state court in Winkler County, Texas, for retaliating against 2 nurses who had anonymously reported him in 2009 to the Texas Medical Board (TMB) over the quality of his patient care. In February this year, the TMB put Dr. Arafiles on probation for 4 years, fined him $5000, and ordered him to enroll in a remedial medical education program

Thirteen physicians and a nurse practitioner were arrested on December 13, charged with accepting bribes from Orange Community MRI in exchange for referring patients for a variety of imaging exams. The company's executive director was also arrested. The imaging company began making illegal kickback payments as early as 2010, according to a press release from the Offices of United States Attorneys. At the end of each calendar month, prosecutors allege, individuals at the imaging company printed patient reports detailing how many diagnostic tests were referred by each of the defendants to determine the payments due to each.

In August, 14 physicians were indicted as members of "the nation's largest criminal organization" involved in illegally distributing opioid analgesics. One of the 14 physicians, Gerald J. Klein, MD, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of a man who overdosed on a massive drug combination that Dr. Klein had prescribed. In a separate case, Sam Jahani, DO, and Eric Peper, MD, faced federal charges of illegally prescribing opioid analgesics and other controlled substances that led to the overdose deaths of 4 patients. In a third case in August, 4 physicians and 13 other clinicians working with 26 pharmacies were charged with conspiring to commit healthcare fraud by billing for illegally prescribed drugs, mostly various opioids

In January, Kermit Gosnell, MD, was charged by a Pennsylvania grand jury with the murder of 7 newborn infants and a Bhutanese immigrant named Karnamaya Mongar, who died of cardiac arrest in 2009 following a meperidine (Demerol®) overdose dispensed by unlicensed, untrained, and unsupervised clinic employees. Other criminal charges include aborting fetuses past the state's legal limit of 24 weeks, violating the state's controlled substance law, abusing corpses, and corrupting the morals of a minor whom Dr. Gosnell hired at age 15 to work at his Philadelphia clinic. The case prompted Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett to issue strict new policies for monitoring licensed abortion clinics, and Philadelphia prosecutors paved the way in court toward seeking the death penalty.

The Maryland Medical Board in July decided to revoke the medical license of Mark Midei, MD, calling his violations of the Medical Practice Act "repeated and serious." Midei is alleged to have implanted hundreds of unneeded stents when he worked at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Maryland. A similar case also was decided in July when John R. McLean, MD, was convicted on 6 charges of healthcare fraud relating to insurance claims that he had filed for stents deemed to have been placed unnecessarily, as well as for ordering unnecessary tests and making false entries in patient medical records. In November, Dr. McLean wassentenced to 8 years in jail plus restitution.