Complaint Review: Governor John Kasich - Ohio

Governor John Kasich campaigned in 2010 to 'clean-up' the State Medical Board of Ohio - wanting to have the Medical Board all resign & appoint a 'new' Board.  Now 3 years into his term (2013), so far not one of his appointments has made any difference, cleaned up the Medical Board in any way as far as outdated policies & unresolved backlogged cases, or done anything but continue to bankrupt the Medical Board with inappropriate actions against innocent physicians trying to point out the problems in Ohio care and at the Medical Board.  The main problem is the list of Members, and the lack of any significant reforms at the State Medical Board of Ohio for the last 20 years.  It's like the Inquisition at the State Medical Board - you prove your innocence by a trial of fire with 'confidential' complaints. 

The Medical Board of Ohio is in the worst fiscal condition of any State Medical Board - the Ohio Medical Board 'fiscal cliff.'  The yearly physician dues are continuing to rise, the unresolved actions are crippling the Board, and the coffers are empty.  Governor Kasich refuses to appoint an independent reviewer(s) - JD, MD, or panel of 3 - to legally review cases that have gone on for 7 years or more, and are unresolved because there is no case against the physician involved. 

In one case the State Medical Board just orders the woman MD to another and another psychiatric evaluation - when the last evaluation doesn't produce anything wrong with the physician or her above-average Internal Medicine care of patients - this has wasted one physician career for 20 years - because Anita Steinbergh DO hates her.  If a physician practices above-average care for Ohio, maybe whatever diagnosis that physician 'has' is what the rest of Ohio physicians should 'get' - doing one's professional job is not a personality disorder.  

Personal vendettas are consuming State time, careers, lives, and worsening the care in Ohio - because 'friend' physicians can get away with any kind of medical neglect or malpractice ie Dr. Timothy Nice, Dr. Carla O'Day.  And the Board Members, Directors, never change - just are recycled - Kimberly Anderson is now the Interim Director where before she was Chief of the over-done Investigations.  Ms. Anderson has risen to her level of incompetence as the Peter Principle goes.  Going after physician personal lives is not a function of a State Medical Board. 

The State of Pennsylvania Medical Board only has physicians pay dues biyearly, and at times forgives dues with surplus monies - they never go after a physician without patient complaints.  

The Divine Sisterhood of  Ya-Ya 'girls' at the helm of the Medical Board of Ohio are continually shopping for bad cases, going after innocent female medical colleagues or spending inappropriate monies on ridiculous investigations.  It's a perpetual shopping expedition at the State Medical Board of Ohio with no statute of limitations on cases - every other state will dismiss a case after 7 years. 

An independent review by the Governor's Office, besides reviewing cases that have gone on beyond 7 years, could pinpoint reforms needed for the Medical Board to function.  Right now Governor Kasich is still refusing to 'own' the mess - allowing staffers to order physicians to another and another psychiatric evaluation for pointing out the problems.  And no one knows what is going on at the State Medical Board of Ohio because everything is 'confidential' - a Review Board could 'get' at this confidential & recommend long overdue reforms.   It would be more cost-effective to admit the problems, and get on with the reforms instead of having office staff hang up on physicians.  Governor Kasich's secretary is expert at this.

Right now the Medical Board of Ohio is not functioning, it is just consuming monies.  And the Membership needs to be representative of the 'whole' of Ohio - not Governor Kasich's neighbors in the Columbus suburbs - they don't need high-speed rail to commute.  Right now the State Medical Board is an albatross in his Administration - functioning poorly if at all. 

The chief Medical Board function is to tell Kasich office staffers that the Board needs repetitive psychiatric evaluations on physicians where they don't have a case - and there's a stack of those 'innocent' cases - cases which need dismissals & monetary damages.  The problem: the State has no monies to repay physicians for damages (emotional, physical & career), so they 'neverend' these cases, and in some instances destroy physician careers over years stretching to decades. 

The State Medical Board of Ohio makes mistakes and has no money to repay the physicians.  There is no procedural way to handle mistakes at the State Medical Board, and get the physicians back to work with re-credentialing courses & fees.  No money - so the Board never dismisses, or ends, cases although there is a 'form' to do this - you 'X' a box.  The Board has the forms, but doesn't use them - because the physicians will then sue the Board for damages - and win once the Board admits an error.  And there is a stack of 'errors' at the Board in Ohio - milions of dollars of damages.  Non-suit agreements - the Medical Board won't spend the time to draw them up & have physicians sign; it's easier to do nothing and hope that the wronged physicians die.  Literally.

Anita Steinbergh DO - a Westerville neighbor of Governor Kasich - has been re-apointed to the State Medical Board of Ohio five times - she's a repeat offender in this cycle of abuse.  Despite the candidates for the Governor to choose from for appointments, he seems to stick to the Westerville & Dublin Ohio crowd.  The high-speed rail system that the Governor vetoed would have enabled physicians, and appointees from all over the State, to come to monthly meetings in Columbus without giving up practices and long commutes.  The main reason for that high-speed rail that Governor Kasich killed, would have been to enable new State appointees from areas outside of suburban Columbus to go to Columbus for monthly meetings without air travel & long drives.   

Each year hundreds of thousands of Columbus-Ohio dollars are spent investigating physicians who have personally experienced the bad medical care in Ohio & said something about it, or complained about a colleague doing it - because they will be sued in the 'sue everybody' clause - as having consulted in the care or signed the chart.  With one bad 'Dr. Nice' physician causing physical injury to patients - or a physician-patient - the morbidity affects everyone in the equation & the hospitals.  Bad physicians drive up the malpractice rates, give hospitals bad 'karma,' and medical mistakes not handled properly have compounding malpractice settlements.  There are no medical mistake laws in Ohio because Governor Kasich won't admit the problem - his office is on medical marijuana - continually spaced out about reality at the Board. 

In Cleveland, certain orthopedics are allowed to leave fractures to 'ripen,' and experimentally cast them.  If a woman MD notices this, or gets her fracture caught in this 'bad' care cycle, she has her medical license suspended on 'provisional' and 'hypothetical,' and is ordered to repeated psychiatric evaluations trying to find a case against her.  The psychiatric evaluations of 'normal' women MDs never end at the State Medical Board of Ohio - it's a sport  These evaluations always discuss the 'sexual' dating history of the woman MD - Dr. Steinbergh seems to be particularly interested this gossip, and why the woman MD doesn't 'like' the bad care providers - who are often 'friend's of long-time Board Members such as Anita Steinbergh DO and Lance Talmadge MD.     

'Friend' physicians of Members are protected in 'confidential' meetings & Medical Board actions by allowing them to (1) get their 'confidential' complaints, and (2) having the Board suspend/discipline any physicians who experience or point out the problems in the friend's care.

Governor Kasich needs to take charge of the Medical Board problems, and sponsor reforms recommended  by an independent review of the situation - there are physicians & judges all over the State who could be appointed to such a review panel for 6 months.  Otherwise the Ohio State Medical Board is going to bankrupt whatever Governor Kasich managed to 'save' by vetoing the high-speed rail system - a rail system which could have highlighted the educational facilities of Ohio & helped parents with the commute to send their kids to Ohio colleges - it was short-sighted as much of Governor Kasich's decisions have been.