Friends of Texas Medical Board Watch,Keith E Miller MD, former Chairman of the Texas Medical Board Disciplinary Process Review Committee, was deposed Friday, March 14, 2008, in Center, Texas.
There were stunning revelations. The transcript is being prepared, and it was also videotaped. Dr. Miller claimed not to be able to recall key facts. At one point AAPS
contacted the court and obtained rulings forcing Miller to answer certain questions. Witnesses recall:
* Miller was actually being paid each month by Blue Cross/Blue Shield as he sat on the TMB and disciplined physicians
* Miller did not recuse himself from any TMB cases, even with physicians who were known to be at odds with BCBS.
* Miller insists that he did not have a conflict of interest that prohibited him from being on the TMB or being Chairman of the TMB Disciplinary Process Review Committee, in spite of his fiduciary interest in BCBS or because of his numerous paid “expert” testimonies for plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases. Some of the doctors he testified against were also disciplined by the TMB. In his letter to Governor Perry, Miller cited a conflict of interest with the Texas Medical Board as the primary reason for his resignation. When letters to the editor appeared in the Center Light & Champion, the only persons who defended him were Roberta Kalafut DO, President of the TMB, and Dee Whittlesey MD, “physician advocate” for BCBS.
* Miller was making up to 20% of his income by serving as an expert for plaintiffs in malpractice cases, while also serving on the TMB and being paid to review charts of physicians contracted with BCBS, as a member of the Texas Medical Advisory Committee for BCBS.
* Miller claimed that he did not discuss his resignation with anyone on the Board, which a judge might find implausible
* Miller repeatedly claimed not to recall key facts, such as whom he spoke with at the TMA, which a judge might find implausible
* Near the end of the deposition, Miller insisted that a physician had killed two patients, even though the malpractice case against that physician was dismissedMiller and his attorneys refused to answer key questions about TMB Informal Settlement Conferences. AAPS may move to compel answers to those questions.
AAPS is proceeding with the litigation against all members of the Texas Medical Board in federal court.
-From Shirley Pigott MD
March 21, 2008
Our sympathies go out to Mike McGrath, a contributor to “An Unofficial Coast Guard Blog,” who reports being fired from working for one of the Coast Guard’s contractors in part for his blogging. McGrath comes from a Coast Guard family — he has had a 26-year career working for the Coast Guard and a father with a 24-year career. On Coast Guard Report he describes what happened:Was told that my position would have been downsized anyways within the next few months, my behavior on the blog sites just made it easier to make me the first to go.I don’t mind if someone wants to let me or any other contractor go because they have to reduce headcount, or some other “Business” reason – that makes perfect sense to me and I understand as a contractor that these contracts come and go with the wind – that’s the risk we take as contractors and is the nature of our world.What I take issue with is that CG leaders over-reacted to and I believe misinterpreted some of my blogs and comments – this drove them to handle my departure the way they did. While I won’t go into the details, let me say that there are certainly more professional ways of handling a person’s departure, rather than the explosive Friday afternoon yelling session with the contractor companies’ senior folks via conference call, then having said contractor company send a letter in the mail to let said contractor know he is no longer employed, then firing off a late Friday afternoon email that in essence says go home and wait for said letter – which is exactly the way I interpreted the whole situation – and by the way all without letting said contractor know that any of this was going on.Did I mention that I just had my performance evals completed within the last 2 weeks, scored perfect all across the board, got a raise (which I will never see) and that there was no indication from anybody that there was anything wrong occurring; no feedback, no counseling, no pointing out of where I might be violating any written policy, nothing – no indication whatsoever. Yeah, now you know why I have such heartburn with all this.In January, McGrath described being told by his superiors to “back off” on his blogging:I was sort of encouraged (with some very strong negative overtones) to be careful about posting my personal information and my opinions on these blogs….I just wanted to report that I now understand what it feels like to have that experience; and to state emphatically that I won’t be backing down.McGrath’s last blog entry before being fired described his frustrations with an unfinished Coast Guard investigation into an incident in which his son ended up “permanently brain damaged.” Another blog entry was critical of efforts to reorganize the Coast Guard. Yet, in his blogging he frequently expressed his love of the Coast Guard and a sincere desire to make it better.As the world wide web has grown, more and more employees at government agencies and contractors have taken the risk of expressing their opinions and exposing the inner workings of their institutions on blogs as well as on YouTube. Some of these individuals are also whistleblowers who expose corruption or possible harms to the public.Government agencies and companies are all too happy to fire someone like McGrath in order to send a message to other employees to keep their mouths shut. Left unchallenged, these jack booted thug firings ultimately may help to keep the public in the dark about institutional corruption and risks to the public. Unfortunately, in an Orwellian turn of events, the Supreme Court ruled two years ago that government employees have no free speech rights to discuss their official work.Other contributors to “An Unofficial Coast Guard Blog” aren’t backing down. In fact, they believe that efforts to silence Coast Guard critics are backfiring. Mike McGrath says he’s starting to write a book about his experiences with the Coast Guard.– Beth Daley _____________________________________________
Beth Daley, Director of Investigations
Project On Government Oversight
666 11th Street, NW, #900
Washington, DC 20001
Phone 202-347-1122 Fax 202-347-1116 Web http://www.pogo.orgFounded in 1981, the Project On Government Oversight is an independent nonprofit which investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more accountable federal government.
March 21, 2008
