Texas is a major battle ground in the health wars. Always has been.
Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
April 7th, 2011
What is different now is that the pace has been stepped up. “Defense” is last year’s strategy – it got part of the job done.
Now there is a shift – a big one, and it is rolling along quite nicely. Before I tell you what’s happening, who is doing it, and where it is going, I’m going to give you a little history by showing you a summary of an earlier campaign.
The big battleground ten-to-fifteen years ago was California, and the North American Health Freedom Movement stomped through the state like Sherman’s march to the sea. Like Texas now, coalitions had been formed, problem areas identified, and strategies and tactics designed and implemented. And, once rolling, it all went smoothly. Unlike Texas, California is now a safe haven for cutting-edge health care.
How We Did It in California…
Any problem, large or small, can be handled with simple crisis management techniques: Identify Problems, Identify Possible Solutions, Make Plans, Execute Plans, Review Situation. First, of course, Goals and Objectives need to be set in place.
There were a lot of problems in California, but, in short, the quackbusters, literally, controlled health care thinking in the state. It was obvious that in order to get anywhere the quackbusters would have to be ripped from their influence positions. So we did that.
It was easier than we first thought, to do that, for the quackbusters played right into our hands. Their arrogance was legendary, and it worked very well for us. Once we solved the first problem, legislation to protect our cutting-edge people was easy. There were many pieces of legislation carried, but two bills passed – SB1691 (2004) for licensed practitioners and SB 577 (2002) for unlicensed practitioners, that pretty much solved the issues.
But, getting to the legislation, and making it sail through both houses and into the Governor’s hands took a lot of set-up, using a lot of dedicated, team-playing, people. Nice people.
The first step was to quietly, and sometimes not-so-quietly, point out to California legislative, and otherwise, leadership just exactly how sleazy, and downright rotten-at-the-core, the quackbuster operation actually was (and is). Probably the best example was the organized assault on the National Council Against Health Fraud’s (NCAHF) citadel at Loma Linda University. The California team simply attended, en-masse, one of then NCAHF President William Jarvis PhD’s anti-AltMed Cancer productions, provoked the nitwit into calling security to have them removed, and then complained loudly, in writing, to Loma Linda Administration. Loma Linda University then ousted the NCAHF from its campus – very publicly . Of course, key California legislators were made aware of this occurrence. And that was Strike One.
Then the California group began to attend the California Medical Board meetings – en masse, and we brought the media. TV cameras, and newspaper reporters, climbing over each other – and we choreographed all of it – as our speakers, as many as 300 at one time, assailed the Board over their prosecution of cutting-edge practitioners. The Board Staff was terrified and brought in bludgeon carrying cops to line the walls when we were there. More, we pointed out that REAL bad doctors were being ignored by the Board Staff, and two of the State’s major newspapers were fed a constant stream of horror stories – which they printed. Part of our group constantly besieged the Board Staff with questions like “How often do staff members confer with Stephen Barrett? Do you have a training manual to go after cutting-edge practitioners? Who wrote it? Of course, key California legislators were made aware of these occurrences. And that was Strike Two.
The California Medical Board v Robert Sinaiko MD case became our cause célèbre. It was interesting that Robert Sinaiko MD was not an Alt Med practitioner, and, in fact, had never heard of Alt Med practitioners, until he was accused of being one, and was prosecuted for it – and lost his license for being one. In an earlier article, back in 2003 I had written:
“Alfredo Terrazas was the State of California Attorney General prosecutor in the Sinaiko case. “T-Rex” as he was labeled by the Sinaiko strategy team, hissed in the courtrooms. His presentation was right out of the quackbuster playbook – all name calling, short on facts, long on falsehood and misrepresentation.
Sinaiko’s attorney, in an official complaint to California State authorities had pointed to Terrazas’s courtroom antics, where Terrazas had claimed that Sinaiko was “practicing junk science, voodoo medicine, pseudo-science — that is to say chronic fatigue syndrome is voodoo science — selling a bogus treatment, aggressive, loose cannon. He diagnosed Dr. Sinaiko and says he suffers from delusions, paranoia, grandiosity, he has persecutory delusions; if we are not careful, he will mutate his present form of medicine in some other form of quackery. He endangers the public. He is insidious, he uses junk science…” Typical quackbuster blatherings.
The Sinaiko case, of course, starting in 1996, had gone through the administrative hearing process, and on to the OLD appointed board – where of course, the quackbuster mentality had influence. They took his license…
But in California – we simply went on to the next step – appeal. Sinaiko supporters not only raised the money, but they raised public consciousness about the attack on Sinaiko. They made alliances with others groups. Bob Sinaiko has the support, in his case, from not only the California and North American Health Freedom movement, but from the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD), the California Medical Association (CMA), the Center for Public Interest Law (CPIL), and his patients. Amicus briefs (friend of the court) have been filed by most of the organizations that support Sinaiko.
The quackbusters didn’t have a chance. They won the first battle, and died in the war”.
We played the Sinaiko case right at California legislators – and that tactic worked well. The top leaders in both houses began to carry carry our legislation. And that was Strike Three.
And, in California, the quackbusters were Out, Out, Out...
The War in Texas…
孙武 (Sun Tzu) would be proud.
The combined strategy started out in two prongs: (1) with attorneys working on defending cutting-edge practitioners combining strategies and tactics, and (2) activist groups carrying legislation and stopping bad legislation.
They also found out that there was a consistency in the complaints, and that those same complaints ended up on one of Stephen Barrett’s websites LONG BEFORE the doctor got a copy of it. Local newspapers were notified immediately.
The first group, the attorneys and their clients, formed into structures and compared notes. They found, of course, that the Texas Medical Board had an “Anonymous Complaint” system – meaning that the complainant would be hidden.
Also, they found out that the so-called “expert witness” against the doctor was, inevitably, the current president of the NCAHF bobbie baratz, the guy with the fake resume. We had put bobbie on trial in Wisconsin, over his credibility – and he didn’t do well. So, as you probably have already guessed, my files on him made their way to Texas, to more than one attorney. (grin here).
Let’s see… Two plus two = four. Four plus four = eight. Barrett plus Baratz = anonymous complaint? Hmmmm.
Funny thing – the Medical Board cases, using bobbie baratz, didn’t do very well. I wonder why? (sarcasm intended). But, the pattern was obvious, so the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, with Andrew Schlafly at the legal helm, stepped in and began the lawsuit. And, as of this month, Discovery has resumed. Why is that good for us? Because, as I said before:
“And, that’s when the fun begins. Why?
Because the Texas Medical Board has relied on the Anonymous Complaint format to justify spurious attacks on doctors. AAPS will simply demand two things for sure: (1) copies of every complaint filed against its members, and (2) copies of every complaint filed against EVERY MD in the State for the last five years.
When this info is provided, I suspect, and the Court will demand it, several things will happen, one of which will be the convergence of the two Federal Court cases.
Why will this converge the two Federal Court cases? Because we already know, for instance, that Stephen Barrett, himself, filed about five separate Anonymous Complaints against Jesus Caquias MD, mentioned in the Doctor’s Data v Stephen Barrett Federal Court case, and offered himself as an expert witness against Caquias. More, bobbie baratz, Barrett’s buddy, and president of the NCAHF, was the ONLY witness against William Rea MD, the Doctor who had six anonymous complaints filed against him by a New York insurance company who didn’t want to pay him.”
Information gathering (Discovery) is everything.
Steve Hotze MD, down in Houston, is nobody to mess with. Steve, with a bunch of his friends, doctors and conservative Republicans, formed an entity called “Texans for Patients’ & Physicians’ Rights!” and began to make the Texas Medical Board sweat blood. They began to lobby for legislation to solve some Medical Board issues.
The second group, Texas Health Freedom Coalition, with Leaders Peter McCarthy and Radhia Gleis, and their twenty (20) member groups compiling 50,000 Texas health care members. were on a parallel path, and had been for years. Check out their website and you will get an idea of all the things they are into. And they are media savvy. Take a look at their member organizations. In a fight you definitely want to be on the same side.
I was surprised to find that the two groups knew of each other but had not met to discuss common interests. It just so happened that I was having lunch with Peter and Radhia in Las Vegas, at the Mandalay Bay Resort, during the four day A4M conference last December, when Steve Hotze called me on my cell phone. I had left a message for Steve asking if his doctor group had been able to ferret out any names of the Board complainants against he, and his fellow doctors – especially the ones where bobbie baratz had turned up as the so-called “expert witness.”
The reason I wanted to know was that Jesus Caquias MD, the doctor at the falsely attacked Care Clinics (Autism Treatment) in Austin, Texas had made the Barrett/Baratz Complainant/Witness situation an issue in his responses to the five Medical Board complaints filed by Barrett. Jesus was quoting the Texas law on Barratry, and applying it to his situation. I had written some things about this:
“Everybody knows that I am a Crisis Management Consultant in the health care industry. I get called into the cases where the quackbuster misinformation group is operating. Not so long ago, I was hired to look at a situation in Austin, Texas where a clinic was attacked by goofbag Stephen Barrett on several fronts – a Texas Medical Board complaint was filed against the doctor (Jesus Caquias MD), all of the health insurance companies stopped paying the clinic for their services, and the FBI raided the clinic last July 2009, claiming in the warrant that they were investigating the clinic for “Insurance Fraud,” and “Health Fraud” violations.”
Steve was calling me back to tell me that they had no information on the Complainants names in their case, but they were eager to get some. We discussed the AAPS versus Texas Medical Board case, briefly, and that case’s ability to get those Complainant names. Then I asked Steve if he knew Pete and Radhia – and a new alliance was born.
Frankly, I think the Texas law on Barratry idea, involving Barrett, and Baratz should be aggressively pursued. It could be just what the Plaintiff attorneys in the Doctor’s Data v Barrett, et al, need to turn their Civil Conspiracy into a RICO action.
Currently, the two groups have joined forces.
As Steve Hotze MD broadcast last week:
“Colleagues and Friends of Texas Health Freedom,
HB 1013, the Texas Medical Board reform bill authored by state Rep. Fred Brown, has been approved by the House Public Health Committee for consideration by the full House. Here’s the full story:
The bill, which has 4 joint authors and 60 co-sponsors, now goes to the Calendars Committee for scheduling on the House docket for a vote by the full House.
HB 1013 will eliminate the ability of moneyed special interest groups, some of which are from out-of-state, from persecuting holistic physicians and unlicensed CAM practitioners.
The bill bans all anonymous complaints except for those filed by patients, and was supported in the March 16th hearing by testimony from Texas Health Freedom Coalition Leaders Peter McCarthy and Radhia Gleis.
We can now assist this bill to become law by making our voices heard with the Calendars Committee. Here’s how:
Please paste the following message into your e-mail servcie and send it:To: [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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[email protected]
Subject: Please Schedule HB 1013 For A Vote By the Full House
To the Members of the House Calendars Committee, It is extremely important to me that Texas Medical Board procedures adhere to Constitutional principles. I strongly urge you to schedule HB 1013 for a vote by the full House.
Thank you. Name, City, Zip Code
Please send your e-mail today. Thanks for your support of Texas Health Freedom.”
Four joint sponsors and sixty co-sponsors? Things are picking up.
Stay tuned.
Tim Bolen – Consumer Advocate