PsychSearch

Dallas Morning News Convicted Frisco psychiatrist surrenders medical license A nationally known Frisco psychiatrist convicted of fraudulently issuing prescriptions surrendered his medical license on Wednesday, according to the Collin County District Attorney’s Office. Todd M. Clements, 43, who lived in Frisco and practiced in Plano and Frisco pleaded guilty to three felony counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraudulently issuing prescriptions. According to the district attorney’s office, Clements obtained Lisdexaphetamine and Zolpidem, both controlled substances, by issuing fraudulent prescriptions on Aug. 5, 2009, and March 1, 2010. Clements was a practicing doctor at Clements Clinic of Plano and at the Frisco Counseling and Wellness Center… psychsearch.net/todd-clements/

PENNLIVE Psychiatrist convicted in drugs-for-sex scheme isn’t too old for prison, Pa. court says A Pennsylvania psychiatrist who traded pills to 13 female drug addicts for sex in a bid to build a “commune” could be fated to die in prison. The odds of that happening to 72-year-old Thomas Radecki increased this week when a state Superior Court panel refused to overturn his 11- to 22-year jail term. In an opinion by Judge Victor P. Stabile, the state court rejected Radecki’s argument that his sentence is too long. In short, Stabile found that Radecki doesn’t deserve a discount on his punishment because of his age. A Clarion County jury convicted Radecki in 2016 of an array of charges involving illegal prescription of drugs while he ran what was supposed to be a rehab program for people addicted to heroin and pain-killers. Instead, investigators said, Radecki gave medications to 13 of his patients, usually poor young women, if they agreed to have sex with him. He had a child by one of the victims, Stabile noted… psychsearch.net/thomas-radecki/

@drannamedical @eyebaws1 @LauraDelano @CAMHnews @cpsbc_ca Make them obsolete.

@eyebaws1 @PsychSearch @LauraDelano @CAMHnews What about those that enable psychiatry @cpsbc_ca

@immabeahippo @rcpsychTrainees Congrats on the Oriel offer! 🕵️‍♂️ Another name just hit our radar. We run the world’s largest public-records database on psychiatrists… and it’s growing fast for all the wrong reasons.

Well… the offer is out on Oriel… i’m going to be a psychiatrist! So happy I could do a little dance around the gym coffee shop right now 🥰 @rcpsychTrainees #choosepsych

New era arrives? Hope so — but before you walk into that psychiatrist’s office next week, remember we’ve built the world’s largest public-records database on psychiatrists for a reason. Too many patients discover — too late — that the person holding the prescription pad has their own headlines: suspended licenses, fraud indictments, drug rings, even bodies in backyards. Diagnosis isn’t biology; it’s whoever’s chair you sit in, so verify first because public records don’t lie — stay safe out there.

im gonna go to psychiatrist next week let's hope I'll get a visit asap🙏 new era arrives i hope

Austin American-Statesman Medical board suspends Richard Sofinowski, psychiatrist accused in Austin drug ring A Texas Medical Board panel has suspended the license of Austin psychiatrist Richard Edward Sofinowski who was indicted on drug charges last month, the board announced Monday. The panel took the action Feb. 6 saying that Sofinowski’s medical practice posed a continuing threat to public welfare. In November, he was arrested at his residence by Drug Enforcement Administration agents and the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office after authorities searched his home and discovered 11.5 grams of methamphetamine and several hundred tablets of controlled substances, according to law enforcement officials and the medical board. The sheriff’s department charged him with possessing a controlled substance, booked him into jail and released him the next day after he posted $20,000 bail. On Jan. 21, Sofinowski was indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and other controlled substances and two counts of distribution of methamphetamine and other controlled substances… psychsearch.net/richard-sofino…

@jadethebpdcoach Reliability is non-existent when "diagnosis" depends on which office you walk into rather than objective biological testing. Patients are left as collateral damage in a professional turf war where labels are used as opinions instead of scientific facts.

Patient goes to multiple psychiatrists. They all confirm BPD as the appropriate diagnosis. Patient agrees. Begins treatment. Then one day patient’s therapist says “I don’t know why all these doctors are labeling you BPD, you have autism and CPTSD.” Patient’s psychiatrist says “Don’t listen to the therapist, it’s ridiculous that they’re diagnosing you like this.” Patient runs to the internet forums, upset and confused, to try and gain clarity. They find none. And this is the story of patient, after patient, after patient. How do patients make a judgment call on who is giving them the “right” treatment approach, when they don’t know therapy or psychiatry or labels? Do they trust the psychiatrist who says not to listen to the therapist? Or the therapist who says not to listen to the doctor? Or the people in forums who tell them all kinds of different things? How can patients be guided with more clarity, so they aren’t left feeling confused and hopeless of ever finding a path forward?

The Nuremberg studies proved that the men behind the Holocaust weren't "insane" monsters, but ordinary people who traded their own consciences for a group ideology. This "surrendered morality" happens when people stop thinking for themselves and start viewing their actions as just part of a job or a higher cause. Happens today whenever we prioritize following orders over our own sense of right and wrong.

The men who built Auschwitz weren’t born monsters. They were ordinary, educated Germans whose consciences were reassigned to serve a total ideology. Psychiatrist Douglas Kelley saw it in their eyes at Nuremberg: not insanity, but surrendered morality. The same machinery runs today under different flags. Don’t wait for Nuremberg. Read it via the link in the comments.

Democrat and Chronicle William Lewek, who admitted to burying body, back in jail on parole violations William Lewek, the former psychiatrist who admitted to burying the body of a dead man in his backyard, has been returned to jail on three parole violations. Lewek, 66, is accused of possessing hydrocodone and failing to seek a mental health evaluation. There are two violations related to the mental health issue, according to Lewek’s attorney, Matthew Parrinello. Lewek, who has lost his medical license, pleaded guilty in February 2015 to burying the body of 32-year-old Matthew Straton in the backyard of Lewek’s Rowley Street home. He was sentenced to 1⅓ to four years for tampering with evidence, the maximum penalty for the felony… psychsearch.net/william-lewek/

United States Attorney U.S. Department of Justice Northern District of Illinois FORMER MEDICAL DIRECTOR AT ROCK CREEK PSYCHIATRIC FACILITY INDICTED IN ALLEGED $875,000 HEALTH CARE FRAUD SCHEME FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FRIDAY JUNE 30, 2006 CHICAGO – A suburban psychiatrist who was the medical director at the shuttered Rock Creek Center in Lemont was indicted for allegedly defrauding Medicare of more than $875,000 by falsely claiming to have provided services that he never performed and billing for more complex services than he actually provided. The defendant, Dr. Naseem Chaudhry, allegedly admitted patients to the privately-owned Rock Creek psychiatric facility, routinely kept them in the facility for long periods of time, and billed for services when there were no medically necessary reasons for either their admission or the services he claimed to have provided. On certain days, Chaudhry billed Medicare for more than 16 or 24 hours of services he allegedly provided in a single day, and in some instances, he was not even in the United States on the dates he falsely claimed to have personally provided medical services, according to the charges. Chaudhry, 49, of Downers Grove, was charged with 14 counts of health care fraud in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury, announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of $875,881. Chaudhry will be ordered to appear for arraignment at a later date in U.S. District Court. Chaudhry was the medical director at Rock Creek from 1998 through late 1999, and he was the assistant medical director from late 1999 until the facility, with approximately 120 patients beds, closed in September 2002. In addition to Rock Creek, Chaudhry treated patients at nursing facilities and hospitals in the Chicago area, and he owned Nehal Psychiatric Group in Downers Grove and practiced psychiatry at Integrated Health Center in Romeoville. The indictment alleges that between at least January 1999 and November 2001, Chaudhry defrauded Medicare by submitting false claims for reimbursement, claiming either that he provided more complex evaluation and management and psychotherapy services than were actually provided, or that he provided services that he never performed. By claiming to have provided more complex services, or “up-coding” claims, Medicare reimbursed Chaudhry at a higher rate than if he had properly billed for the services he actually provided. Mr. Fitzgerald announced the charges with David Krupnick, Special Agent-in-Charge of Investigations for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General in Chicago, and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lisa Noller and Jeffrey Cramer. The investigation is continuing, they said. Each count of health care fraud carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. As an alternative fine, the Court may order a fine totaling twice the gross loss to any victim or twice the gain to the defendant, whichever is greater. The Court, which also must order restitution, would determine the appropriate sentence to be imposed. The public is reminded that an indictment contains only charges and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and is entitled to a fair trial at which the United States has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. psychsearch.net/naseem-chaudhr…

The United States Attorneys Office New Jersey Wayne psychiatrist pleads guilty to illegally selling oxycodone prescriptions to patients FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 18, 2012 CAMDEN, N.J. – Dr. Priscilla Ilem admitted today to illegally selling oxycodone prescriptions from her Wayne office, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Ilem, 85, of Wayne, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Irenas in Camden federal court to an Information charging her with distribution of oxycodone, a Schedule II controlled substance, without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice. According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court: Law enforcement received information that Ilem was selling prescriptions out of the office she maintained in her Wayne residence. During June and July 2011, at Walgreens pharmacy alone, 291 prescriptions for oxycodone were filled, which had been issued by Dr. Ilem. On several occasions in July 2011, Ilem was visited by several undercover law enforcement officers posing as patients. On each occasion, Ilem provided these undercover officers with a prescription for oxycodone in exchange for a sum of money, without performing any medical examination. Ilem admitted that between June 2011 and August 2011, she wrote an inordinately large amount of oxycodone prescriptions for patients that were medically unnecessary and outside the scope of common medical practice, in exchange for money. Ilem also admitted that she failed to give patients proper physical examinations before issuing prescriptions, and prescribed oxycodone at intervals inconsistent with legitimate medical treatment. Ilem affirmed that in her medical opinion, there was an absence of a logical relationship between the oxycodone she prescribed and the patients’ alleged condition. The distribution of a Schedule II controlled substance carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and $1 million fine. As part of her guilty plea, Ilem agreed to forfeit $500,000 in illegal proceeds to the federal government. Sentencing is currently scheduled for Dec. 18, 2012. U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Brian R. Crowell; and the Wayne Police Department, headed by Chief John Reardon, for the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adam N. Subervi and Anthony Mahajan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark. psychsearch.net/priscilla-ilem/