See my Update for the Board’s side of the story.
Administrative Law Judge, Wendy Harvel, of the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings, personally presented her recommendation that a complaint against Texas Ob/gyn licensee Chris Kuhne MD be dismissed. The meeting was held on August 23 and 24th,2007,
A complaint had been filed against Dr. Kuhne because he inadvertently overcharged a patient for medical records. He charged $81 rather than $39 by mistakenly using the guidelines for hospitals rather than physicians.
I read the Proposal-for-Decision and it is unrefuted that this was neither intentional nor a pattern on Dr. Kuhne’s part. Yet the Board forged ahead and prosecuted him for this mistake.
In her decision, AlJ Harvel, noted that licensing agencies do not have the power to take disciplinary action against licensees for “unknowing and isolated billing errors”. She restated this before the Board during a meeting considering her recommendation.
An eyewitness to this meeting reports that the Board voted not to accept Judge Harvel’s recommendation–although this in not noted in a recent Board release. If true, in my opinion, this is a troubling decision.
In fact, it is disturbing, if the Proposal for Decision is factually correct, that the Board would even undertake the prosecution of a physician for something which, according to Judge Harvel, is not even permitted by existing state law. If the law clearly states that physicians cannot be disciplined for “unknown and isolated billing errors” and no evidence exists that this was other than an accident and isolated incident, why did the Board engage in this prosecution? (see my update for the explanation)
I hope that Dr. Kuhne has a feasible and additional avenue for recourse and the ability to pursue it. The heavy hand of regulation should not be used against those who commit minor, unintentional, unrepeated and easily rectifiable mistakes.
One has to wonder if the members of the Texas Medical Board hold themselves to such an absolute and rigid standard.
