Zombies aren't real, but sometimes they sure seem like it. Especially when it involves medicine and the law. Health Diagnostics Laboratories (HDL) went into bankruptcy after being discovered it was ripping off patients by overcharging them and providing kickbacks to doctors and health organizations for using their services. Aside from being unethical this illegal activity put all those employees who were prescribing laboratory tests at risk for legal action. My guest, Dr. Molly Rutherford, was an employee of a physician's private practice in Kentucky when her zombie nightmare occurred. At the clinic, her physician boss encouraged her to perform all sorts of expensive and highly technical laboratory tests on most of her patients. HDL was paying kickbacks to the offices and physicians who ordered their tests. Dr. Rutherford did not find that the results were very useful especially because they were so expensive. Soon, Dr. Rutherford stopped ordering those tests because she didn't find their results helpful in her treatment. However, she later found that her boss was ordering the tests on her patients without consulting her. Once she realized this was happening she quickly felt that something was not right and decided to leave and open her own direct primary care clinic. The advantage of opening her own clinic allowed her to not only escape some of these shady practices but also to begin practicing addiction medicine along with family medicine. Now she mixes the two on her own with great success bringing her lots of professional contentment. Unfortunately, HDL went bankrupt and began demanding back all of its kickbacks given to any doctor who received their kickbacks even if they didn't even know that their ordering of the tests sent the kickbacks to her boss. Dr. Rutherford was forced to hire an attorney to avoid paying the fines demanded by the creditors of HDL. Lucky for Dr. Rutherford, the case was settled by her lawyers who got her out of the lawsuit but still cost her several thousand dollars even though she was no longer working at the clinic. That is now in the past and she is enjoying her life practicing medicine the way she wants. Dr. Molly Rutherford is a family medicine and addiction medicine specialist who owns and operates the Blue Grass Family Wellness DPC practice. show notes
Blue Grass Family Wellness: This is Dr. Rutherford's family practice website in Crestwood, KY.
Twittering for Molly Rutherford: @UnbridledMD
Episode 019: The big CON. Dr. Singh fights certificate of need laws in North Carolina.
Episode 029: Overcharged - Why American Health Care is So Expensive with David Hyman.
Episode 444: Former Kaiser leader, Dr. Jack Cochran talks about the role physicians have in being leaders which includes a fiduciary responsibility for your patient.
YouTube for Paradocs: Here you can watch the video of my late son singing his solo on the Paradocs YouTube page.
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