What if I Receive a Letter from the OPMC?

If you get a letter in the mail from the New York State Department of Health’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC), it is most likely not bearing good news. In an ideal scenario, the OPMC may simply request that you update your physician profile. While they may threaten disciplinary action with a failure to comply within 30 days, this may be a simple fix that you can tackle quickly on your own. However, any other disclosed reasoning for the correspondence may not be as easy to deal with. And so, please continue reading to learn what to do if you receive a letter from the OPMC and how one of the experienced OPMC/OPD misconduct defense lawyers from Walker Medical Law can guide you on an appropriate response.

Why is the OPMC reaching out to me?

Unfortunately, when you receive a letter from the OPMC, it is most likely because they believe you have done something wrong. And so, this formal notice is to inform you that they are opening an inquiry or investigation to address your potential professional medical misconduct.

This may have been triggered by a complaint submitted to them by a current or former patient of yours, a fellow colleague at work, your employer, or even a competing healthcare facility that has heard certain allegations made against you by word of mouth. Nonetheless, the nature of this complaint may pertain to your alleged fraud (i.e., billing fraud or insurance fraud), suspect illegal drug use or alcohol abuse, acts of sexual harassment or assault, or general incompetence with facilitating adequate healthcare in your practice area.

What should I do if I receive a letter from the OPMC?

It is natural for your heart to begin racing once you begin reading the letter sent to you by the OPMC. While your fight or flight mode may be automatically activated, it is critically important for you not to ignore this letter. This is because such an improper response, or a lack thereof, may increase the risk of receiving disciplinary action, even if you are truly not guilty of the misconduct claims.

Rather, you must respond to this letter immediately, but not before retaining the services of a lawyer. With their assistance, you may craft an appropriate response that does not unintentionally or accidentally incriminate you for the misconduct you are being accused of. Also, you must comply with all the OPMC’s requests and supplement your response with the documents relevant to the misconduct claim in question (i.e., billing records from a specified period, the recorded charts of certain patients, the recorded correspondence between you and certain patients, etc).

After you get this squared away, you may begin preparing for your upcoming interview with an OPMC investigator, with the scheduled date likely disclosed in the letter. Generally speaking, you must stay smart and pay attention to exactly what the investigator is asking you. You must remember that the investigator is also interviewing others that you do not know about (i.e., patients, colleagues, employers, competitors, etc.), and you have no idea what they are sharing. So, on your end, the best you can do is answer with nothing less than the whole truth.

There is no need to go through the important process of defending your medical license alone. Please seek the support and assistance of one of the skilled OPMC/OPD misconduct defense lawyers. Contact Walker Medical Law today.