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New push to reform state doctors' investigations

BY JENNIFER MALONEY | jennifer.maloney@newsday.com

November 26, 2007

For years, legislators have been trying to reform the state's system of investigating and disciplining doctors.

Patients' groups said it overlooked bad doctors. Doctors' groups said it unfairly penalized good ones. But attempts to correct these problems through legislation have failed, bogged down in politics and lacking a consensus among advocates on both sides.

As legislators prepare to hold hearings in the case of Dr. Harvey Finkelstein, advocates and lawmakers once again are talking about how to reform the state Health Department's Office of Professional Medical Conduct - the investigative body that waited three years to notify hundreds of patients that they may have been infected with hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HIV by the Dix Hills doctor.

The current system of investigating physicians was created in 1991, when the legislature made the Health Department solely responsible for probing and sanctioning doctors. In 2004, physician advocacy groups lobbied the legislature to create more safeguards for physicians, saying that the OPMC was persecuting some doctors for using a controversial Lyme disease treatment.

At the same time, patient advocates complained that New York disciplined far fewer doctors than many other states.

Legislators worked with both sides to create a sweeping reform bill that proponents said would reduce the length of investigations and allow doctors to present medical literature as evidence to bolster their case.

"At one point it seemed that we had arrived at a consensus - greater supervision and yet procedural steps that would be far clearer," said state Sen. Kemp Hannon, chairman of the Senate Health Committee.

The consensus disintegrated right after the bill was passed. Gov. George Pataki vetoed the bill.

The following year, legislators broke the 2004 bill into five pieces, hoping that they could pass separately, but those never gained traction.

Early this year, Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried co-sponsored legislation that is similar to the 2004 bill. The new version would allow the OPMC to identify bad doctors who have made payouts in malpractice suits or have been rejected from HMOs.

But the bill doesn't address issues raised by the Finkelstein case, advocates and experts said. This month, Assemb. Kenneth Zebrowski (D-Rockland), whose father contracted hepatitis C from a transfusion, co-sponsored legislation that would mandate the immediate license suspension of a physician who could have exposed patients to communicable diseases.

Patient advocates hope that more sweeping reforms will follow.