Ruling that Physician Can Be Excluded from Federal Health Programs for Factors Not in Place at Time of Misconduct Not Disturbed

Patel v. Thompson, 319 F.3d 1317 (11th Cir. 2003), cert. denied, 123 S. Ct. 2652 (2003)

The Supreme Court declined to review a ruling by the Eleventh Circuit that upheld a decision by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to exclude for ten years from all federal health programs a physician who pleaded nolo contendere to a charge of sexual battery of a patient.  The Eleventh Circuit ruled HHS could rely on two aggravating factors in excluding the physician beyond the five-year period provided by statute, even though those factors were added after the occurrence of the physician's conduct.  HHS was permitted to consider that the doctor engaged in a non-consensual sexual act and that his medical license was revoked as a result of the conduct because the regulations adding these factors were intended to protect federal medical program recipients.  Thus, their retroactive application was permissible because they were remedial rather than punitive....

Found in DMHL Volume 23 Issue 1