If you are facing a Peer Review Privilege challenge, then you need an experienced Peer Review Privilege attorney. An adverse review document can destroy a physician’s career. It is not just a loss of Peer Privileges at a particular hospital. Your peer review loss will not only be submitted to your Medical Board but also the National Practitioners Data Bank [NPDB]. You will not only have to answer to your Medical Licensing Board as to the adverse finding, but you most likely will be blackballed by your National Practitioners Data Bank report.
Your Medicare and private Insurance -program participation will be at risk because these respective entities will know of the findings. Your professional liability carrier will know as will your professional associations. The professional associations may drop you as may your professional liability carrier. Alternatively, the carrier may raise your rates. You will have to answer to any and/or all of these entities. This initial adverse hospital Medical Staff entry can be a kiss of death to your professional career. Much of this you will have to self-report at the time of re-credentialing or before depending upon their rules. Signing an authorization for these entities to view your NPDB status is a standard requirement.
The question becomes what can you do. Courts often defer to the professional opinions of Medical Staff determinations when dealing with hospital Peer Review Privilege determinations. How can you use their procedures against them? How can you use the ADA against them or other civil rights laws? How can you use anti-trust laws against those who undertake Sham Peer Reviews against you in order to take your patients from you. Worse of all, often physicians do not know what is happening nor the consequences to them until it is over and they are reported to the National Practitioners Data Bank. Sham Peer Reviews are the greatest danger to any physician’s career.
There are strategies that you can follow to overcome these dire threats but they are best implemented earlier instead of later. Remember that the devil is in the detail. It is like a prize fight and the prize is your career. How many years did you have to commit to creating your career? How quickly can it be destroyed? You need to bring aboard onto your side an attorney who is experienced in these type of matters. You need an attorney who has sued hospitals and other healthcare entities which have threatened his client’s professional standing. You need an attorney that has even sued the National Practitioners Data Bank and had his client’s record cleared.
Kenneth Joel Haber, former Assistant United States Attorney, former Senior Attorney of the Office of Inspector General, stands ready to assist you. Whether you are battling the National Practitioners Data Bank, your medical Staff Board, a Peer Review Committee or even an insurance program or the Medicare program, you need someone who is experienced in these type of career destroying battles. Any healthcare entity that grants privileges, participation or similar involvement with it poses a potential threat to you. You must act promptly and hire an attorney who is experienced in Peer Review Privilege matters, Medical Staff issues, and/or similar issues, an attorney who can challenge the Medical Staff and/or other entity and document the procedural failures as well as identifying and documenting the true underlying factors and violations of law that are the real motive for these entities in placing you being in the critical situation that you are in. Call for a no obligation, free initial consultation. Time is of the essence in these matters. Call Kenneth Haber at 301-670-0016.
