Unless you get your news only from The Spokesman-Review or the Coeur d’Alene Press, you know the story of Dr. Farid Fata, the highly-respected and revered Michigan oncologist who late last week received a 45-year prison sentence for administering poison — cancer chemotherapy — to 550 “patients” who either didn’t need it at all or needed different and often less frequent dosages. Some of his “patients” died because of Dr. Fata’s admitted lust for money and power.
Fata’s conduct was despicable, but he had help from fellow doctors and state regulators who knew in April 2010 that what Fata was doing was harmful to his “patients” but who consciously avoided doing their professional duty to expose and stop him. Their failure of duty was almost as despicable as Fata’s greed for money and compulsion for power and acclaim.
Nurse Angela Swantek received little encouragement after her efforts in 2010 to expose Fata’s willfully administering treatments that harmed his victims. But OpenCdA is completely unsurprised by the State of Michigan’s unwillingness to act. Fata was a highly-respected oncologist who had trained at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Why would a state regulatory agency take the time to investigate the factually-supported allegations of a “justa” (as in, “She’s just a nurse”) over that of someone who was clearly her better, in this case, a medical doctor prominent in the community?
But it’s fair to ask: If the state of Michigan’s investigatory department, now called the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), had taken nurse Angela Swantek’s well-documented facts seriously in 2010, could the suffering and pain Fata inflicted directly on his “patients” and indirectly on their families have been stopped sooner?
OpenCdA hopes that during the inevitable civil lawsuits that will follow, the misconduct and clear failures of duty of other medical professionals and public officials will be fully and completely revealed. Their actions and failures to act are almost as despicable as those of Dr. Farid Fata.
I would like to see financial disclosure laws relevant to pharmaceutical/medical investments that any one particular doctor might have an interest in, those disclosures alone, might help alleviate the temptation or deliberate will to increase one’s own pocketbook.
Comment by Stebbijo — July 13, 2015 @ 8:24 pm
Stebbijo,
Fata was convicted of crimes relating to defrauding insurance companies. Specifically, it appears he was over-prescribing chemotherapy drugs and billing insurance carriers for them. How would the financial disclosure laws you propose prevent doctors from filing false insurance claims?
More alarming to me was that Michigan’s investigatory department obviously blew off nurse Angela Swantek’s detailed and specific documentary evidence of Fata’s conduct which endangered his “patients”. Alarming, but not surprising given that we live in Idaho where public officials (including prosecutors in the criminal justice system) are almost eager to jump to the defense of prominent local figures like Fata rather than objectively and aggressively follow up when a common, ordinary citizen (like nurse Swantek) hands them a case on a silver platter. Fortunately, Fata’s practice manager, George Karadsheh, had the good sense to go to the feds rather than rely on the questionable competence and integrity of the Michigan investigatory department. Equally fortunate was that Barbara McQuade, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, is an aggressive go-get-’em prosecutor. She’d never make it in Idaho where it seems the primary requisite for being the US Attorney is go-along-to-get-along and don’t make waves with any federal, state, or local officials or private citizens who are socially, politically, or economically influential with those officials.
Comment by Bill — July 14, 2015 @ 6:22 am
It would help ‘highlight’ excessive prescription use that might be tied to their own kickbacks. If, for instance this particular doctor had stock in a specific cancer/company drug and prescribed only that drug, it might be the trigger to investigate further. Another example might be psychiatrists who generally will not send anyone out the door without a diagnosis and/or prescription. If disclosure laws were in force, one might find that a particular doctor likes to diagnose everyone with bipolar disorder so he can send folks out with Latuda because he has stocks with Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. If I had invested in Norvatis years ago, the company that makes Ritalin, I would be rich, rich, rich. It’s a huge red flag. Same goes with any specific field such as Cardiology ect. as with Cancer doctors. I don’t know that much about cancer drugs, but I might surmise that most doctors invest in pharmaceuticals related to their field, why wouldn’t they? While, I believe that most doctors, hopefully are not as ugly as Fata, the scary reality is we really don’t know. The red flag would be a database that would interact with the insurance companies regarding the most commonly prescribed drugs used by any specific doctor who might also have financial windfalls, resulting from those investments related to his favorite prescription of choice. The doctors would need to disclose any pharmaceutical/medical investments
This of course will never happen because Big Pharma could not stand to lose any money on their massive profits whether the drugs work or not.
Comment by Stebbijo — July 14, 2015 @ 5:32 pm
Stebbijo,
You hit it right on the head when you said, “… not as ugly as Fata, the scary reality is we really don’t know.” And it’s that degree of dependency we have, that trust that we must have from many professionals such as doctors, attorneys, financial advisers, accountants, etc., that amplifies their betrayal when those professionals do betray our trust. Who can really blame people for no longer trusting lawyers, judges, doctors, accountants, etc. when they betray their clients’ trust? If we as clients knew everything we needed to know before we engaged them, we probably wouldn’t even need them! It applies to public officials as well. We can readily recognize and forgive their mistakes, because we make mistakes, too. But we cannot forgive intentional deception. Ever.
Comment by Bill — July 14, 2015 @ 7:16 pm
Well, you are going to love this local professional development. The case is still being held/postponed for arraignment, but this article is as old as May 22, 2015. There is claim that it’s all political … since this article, another District I Judge has the case. Who knows what she will do with these child molesters/pornographers? Gotta love this emergency medical stuff up in ‘these neck of the woods’ … including those hick judges who wear their sunglasses and refuse to see those silver platters. Just who is getting protected?
http://www.cdapress.com/news/local_news/article_33b4e234-675f-5b5d-8537-35ee53f2fafa.html
Comment by Stebbijo — July 14, 2015 @ 9:19 pm
On another note, I saw my first ignite cda, commerical, yesterday. Now, we are paying for tourism advertisements. This is so wrong. Please, Senator Souza, and Representative Sims …. do something!!
Comment by Stebbijo — July 25, 2015 @ 5:36 pm
Stebbijo,
The LCDC has made Coeur d’Alene the laughingstock of Idaho. People have begun to recognize that an urban renewal agency which produces positive results does not need to spend urban renewal funds on self-promotion and personal ego satisfaction. Positive results speak for themselves, whereas waste of public funds needs to be covered up with the paint of publicity. The people who serve on the LCDC/ignite cda board of directionless are deserving of the scorn and derision they’re receiving from all but the sycophants who profit from the waste and abuse of other people’s money.
Comment by Bill — July 25, 2015 @ 7:10 pm
What I noticed about this ‘commercial’ is if you did not know about the name change LCDC to ignite cda, it would not even phase anyone from out of the area or for that matter those who live here, but don’t know. It looks like a tourism commercial – nothing that really relates to education on how the group grabs our money thru our tax dollars to invest in their own pocketbooks. How are tax dollars are legally paying for this tourism propaganda is beyond me. This is what this GOVERNMENT organization states off of their Facebook page:
Who’s private investment? I want my money back. How in the world our money can “partner” with “private developers” is beyond me … and we have no say in it. We just pay for the commercials and their website while the “partners” fatten their wallets and CHOOSE who gets to have a business or not, or for that matter a sewer.
Those people do not care about any scorn, they are taking their scorn all the way to the bank.
Comment by Stebbijo — July 26, 2015 @ 10:59 am
I know life is busy, Bill and Lisa … but you can at least take a break and give us an article/analysis on the Trump/Media subject. Seriously, do I need to start making a ruckus to get your attention? 🙂
Comment by Stebbijo — August 8, 2015 @ 2:55 pm
Stebbijo,
There’s not much to analyze.
If I were Donald Trump, I’d hire a bunch of bodyguards to protect me from the Republican National Committee. If I were Bernie Sanders, I’d hire a bunch of bodyguards to protect me from Black Lives Matter. If I were in the US Congress and contemplating either a Trump or Sanders presidency, I’d become a lifetime member of AA. If I were an alleged skews media person who graduated from J-school in the last 30 years, I’d lawyer up and sue my alma mater for fraud, then consider changing occupations to become a standup comic, a member of Congress, or a spokesman for a local government in northern Trashcanistan.
Comment by Bill — August 9, 2015 @ 7:36 am