Doctor says search of office too intrusive

In the Courts. By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Aug. 8, 2005.

Government inspectors have the right to look at a physician's records if they suspect the doctor is committing fraud. But just how far is the government allowed to go if they come knocking on your door based on a tip from one of your employees?

Can they scan through records? Interview employees? Videotape exam rooms and refrigerators used to store medicine? Look at records from patients who aren't part of either the Medicare or Medicaid program?

Doctors don't dispute the government's interest in weeding out those who overbill Medicare and Medicaid. But one Tennessee physician says government agents went too far in a search of her office when they arrived unannounced in January 2002.

Internist and oncologist Young Moon, MD, is challenging the search in a federal court through a motion to suppress evidence the government collected in the case it has filed against her.

A grand jury indicted the physician, accusing her of fraudulently billing government programs for pharmaceuticals to treat cancer patients. Dr. Moon has pleaded not guilty.

Her motion asks a judge to decide whether federal and state agents went beyond their authority under Medicare and Medicaid regulations.

The American Medical Association/State Medical Societies Litigation Center and the Tennessee Medical Assn. filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Dr. Moon, asking the federal judge to suppress evidence that investigators collected.

It's an important case for physicians because experts say it could establish some boundaries for government searches of physicians' offices. Yarnell Beatty, general counsel for the TMA, said if the case "comes down on the side of Dr. Moon, I would think that other states would have to look at their procedures."