Georgia must stop risky medicine before more patients are harmed

An overwhelmed, underfunded state medical board that’s failed to rein in medical charlatans and self-promoters, even when they’re proved fraudulent.

An AJC investigation has revealed a litany of alternative-medicine businesses in Georgia that appear to be operating unlawfully by calling themselves MDs, doctors or “naturopathic physicians” and claiming to diagnose and treat disease.

These businesses thrive amid the backdrop of the nation’s Health and Human Services secretary, who stifles science, spreads misinformation and minimizes health risks facing Americans. That tone is only amplified by social media, where users are inundated by wellness influencers peddling too-good-to-be-true, one-size-fits-all quick fixes to long-standing ailments.

Peach State created a framework but failed to deliver

Credit: Philip Robibero

Credit: Philip Robibero

Amid the national climate increasingly tolerant of unproven therapies, Georgia has emerged as a safe harbor for risky medicine that often leaves patients with drained savings, empty-handed for answers and, in some cases, even physically harmed by providers operating outside the law and the standard of care.

Where other states have warned against the experimental and harmful alternative medicine, such as chelation or stem cell therapies as cure-alls, established guardrails around alternative medicine and disciplined unlawful practitioners, Georgia has all but rolled out the welcome mat by failing to protect the public interest against false claims and bad actors.

What’s worse — Georgia actually has the tools to empower patients trying to navigate their medical decisions and find physicians who can help them find answers. They just don’t work right.

Decades ago, the state passed legislation that would allow patients to verify crucial information, including physician credentials, their hospital privileges and disciplinary action on the Georgia Composite Medical Board’s website. Later, the law added the ability to check whether a physician had malpractice insurance.

Yet, as the AJC’s investigative team found, the information on the site is widely outdated, missing or inaccurate — leaving patients unarmed as they navigate a sea of providers promising answers.

It allows a business model built around vulnerable patients to thrive. And the Make America Healthy Again mantra that’s taken hold of federal leadership has not only normalized attacks on conventional medicine but also fueled the exploitation of patients in need of answers.

Georgia has a choice: Either lead in patient failure or lead in patient protections.

For too long, state leaders have left the agency meant to protect patients underfunded, understaffed and underpowered.

Right now, Georgia ranks next to last when it comes to disciplining doctors, meting out serious consequences in fewer than 2% of cases that appear before the state medical board. Doctors with multiple malpractice payouts are allowed to continue practicing without restrictions.

In one case, a dermatologist who received a disciplinary order in North Carolina for wrongfully operating on a 13-year-old boy, faced federal charges of improperly billing federal health programs and was reprimanded in Tennessee and ordered ethics training, still has a clean licensing profile in Georgia.

It’s a bureaucratic failure that can destroy lives, from severe financial exploitation to patients being harmed.

In another case, an emergency room doctor claiming to be “board certified” in regenerative medicine opened a medical spa that promised all manner of stem cell treatments — after two days of hands-on training and a few days of in-class instruction.

A patient approached her seeking a treatment for macular degeneration, a progressive eye disease that has no cure.

The board certification claim was false, and the stem cell treatment the patient received was not FDA-approved and carried severe, known risks. After spending thousands of dollars on the hope of restoring her vision, the patient wound up blind.

Several families told the AJC that they sought alternative care because they were in desperate need for answers. The providers, they said, left them with regret.

How Georgia can fix the problems

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

Here’s the good news: Georgia already has the framework to fix what’s broken. It just needs to make it a legislative priority.

First, lawmakers must properly fund the state medical board and stop claiming the money the board makes off licensing fees, which instead it can use to pay for its operations and hire staff that can enforce regulations and take disciplinary actions against doctors operating illegally.

The board’s relatively new executive director is a strong leader who wants to do more to protect the public and has a plan ready to quickly investigate complaints and monitor clinics across Georgia.

Proper staffing would also allow the board to keep its site up to date on the status of doctors operating in the state. That’s a key step in ensuring patients are informed about the expertise in care they may receive.

Next, align with other states that are effectively protecting patients. As just a snapshot: Texas requires providers to warn patients about alternative medicine — from peptide treatments to stem cells — that falls outside of conventional medical standards.

Alabama and Mississippi have aggressively investigated unlawful IV therapy clinics and blocked violators from providing risky medications. Ohio disciplines doctors at a rate five times higher than Georgia.

We don’t need another tragedy to spark reform. The red flags are there — from the Justice Department statements on Georgia doctors engaged in fraud to the families who say their loved ones trusted alternative medicine and paid the ultimate price.

The evidence is clear, as is the need for change.

This editorial was written by AJC Head of Standards and Practices Samira Jafari on behalf of the AJC Editorial Board, which is comprised of President and Publisher Andrew Morse, Editor-in-Chief Leroy Chapman Jr., Opinion Editor David Plazas and Jafari.

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