Latest news with #TexasMedicalBoard
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Texas Lt. Gov. announces compassionate use expansion amid THC ban
AUSTIN (KXAN) – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced Sunday that an expansion for compassionate use is moving forward, as Texas' ban on THC products is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk for a signature. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick posted on X Sunday evening, saying he and Rep. Tom Oliverson 'have come to an agreement on add chronic pain as a qualifying medical condition to TCUP (compassionate use program) for those who suffer chronic pain as currently defined by the Texas Medical Board rules.' Senate Bill 3 bans all products containing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC — the part of cannabis plants that induce the 'high.' MORE: Texas House bans THC products, reduces criminal penalty for possessing intoxicating hemp Critics argued that the ban will hurt chronic pain sufferers who rely on low-THC products for relief. Patrick's post said he and the authors of House Bill 46, which establishes registration rules for medical THC use, had a 'positive conversation' and they 'look forward to passing this bill for our veterans and those who suffer from chronic pain.' 'The Senate and my concern has always been that we don't want to go back to the days of doctors writing prescriptions for anyone who paid them for a prescription for pain pills,' Patrick wrote, in part. 'Dr. Oliverson presented a new thoughtful plan that the Senate and I can support that will help those in true need of relief.' Patrick said the state will expand licenses from the current number of three, to 12, adding satellite locations in each public health region. He said terminal illness and hospice care have been added as qualifying medical conditions for the compassionate use program and dosage allotments have been increased and standardized. Patrick said this will give 'physicians autonomy to prescribe the right dose for each patient's needs, along with metered dose inhalation delivery systems.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
26-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Texas Doctor Who Filed $118 Million in Fraudulent Medical Claims Gets 10 Years in Prison
For nearly 20 years, a Texas doctor falsely diagnosed patients as having a chronic disease, administered unnecessary, toxic treatments and filed more than $118 million in fraudulent health insurance claims to fund his lavish lifestyle, which included a private jet, luxury cars and high-end properties, prosecutors said. The doctor, Jorge Zamora-Quezada, 68, of Mission, Texas, was sentenced to 10 years in prison this week, according to the Justice Department. From 2000 to 2018, he falsely diagnosed patients with rheumatoid arthritis and administered dangerous, medically unnecessary treatments to defraud federal and private health insurance companies, the Justice Department said. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease that causes a person's immune system to attack healthy tissue. Some of Mr. Zamora-Quezada's patients were as young as 13, the Justice Department said. Mr. Zamora-Quezada's medical license was canceled in 2021, according to Texas Medical Board records. His scheme funded what prosecutors described in court documents as his 'lavish and opulent lifestyle,' with properties across the United States and Mexico, as well as a private jet and a Maserati that he used to travel between his offices in the Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio. Mr. Zamora-Quezada had two luxury penthouse apartments in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; condominiums in San Diego, Aspen, Colo., and Punta Mita, Mexico; and multiple homes and commercial properties in Texas, according to court records. Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said Mr. Zamora-Quezada's 'depraved conduct' represented a 'profound betrayal of trust' between patients and their doctors. Randy Crane, the U.S. chief district judge for the Southern District of Texas, sentenced Mr. Zamora-Quezada to 120 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Mr. Zamora-Quezada was also ordered to pay $28,245,454 in restitution, according to court documents. His scheme defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE and Blue Cross Blue Shield, which together paid out more than $28 million in false claims, according to prosecutors. A lawyer listed in court records for Mr. Zamora-Quezada did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sunday. After a 25-day trial, Mr. Zamora-Quezada was convicted in January 2020 of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, seven counts of health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice. According to a criminal complaint filed in 2018, Mr. Zamora-Quezada falsely diagnosed many patients with rheumatoid arthritis and subjected them to testing, chemotherapy drugs, hourslong intravenous infusions and other 'excessive, repetitive and profit-driven' procedures. Patients suffered strokes, necrosis of the jawbone, hair loss, liver damage and debilitating pain that made daily, basic tasks difficult, federal prosecutors said in a news release. It was not known how many patients in total were misdiagnosed. Mr. Zamora-Quezada hired staff members whom he could manipulate because of their immigration status and imposed strict quotas for the procedures, the Justice Department said. Mr. Zamora-Quezada dismissed patients from his practice who questioned him and hid thousands of patients' records from insurers and other doctors in a dilapidated barn in the Rio Grande Valley, where they were found covered with feces and urine, rodents and termites, the complaint said. Additionally, prosecutors said, Mr. Zamora-Quezada falsified or fabricated patient files and records, including by taking ultrasounds of employees that he used as misleading documentation for insurer audits.
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Korea Herald
14-04-2025
- Health
- Korea Herald
[Lisa Jarvis] RFK Jr.'s measles message
With the death of a second child from measles and cases in the US surging past 600, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, finally stated the obvious: Vaccination is the best way to prevent the spread of the disease. It's a message that should have come sooner from the country's top public health official. Kennedy's response is both too late and too confusing to effectively contain the outbreak. He doesn't seem to take seriously the real risk of the US losing its measles elimination status, declared in 2000 after widespread vaccination stopped the spread of the virus. The direct, albeit brief acknowledgment of the value of the MMR vaccine — made in an X post over the weekend — seemed significant, for a few hours at least. Kennedy, however, muddled the message with a second post praising 'two extraordinary healers … who have treated and healed some 300 measles-stricken Mennonite children using aerosolized budesonide and clarithromycin.' Those 'healers,' however, have a troubled track record that includes disciplinary action by the Texas Medical Board for one of the doctors. Their 'remedies,' a steroid and an antibiotic, aren't cures for measles — there are no established cures for the disease. (A virus causes measles, but clarithromycin targets bacteria and budesonide is not a recommended therapy for measles.) Kennedy's statements show a recognizable pattern: a lukewarm statement supporting medical facts sandwiched between unproven treatments and junk science. This waffling makes it impossible for the public to make well-informed decisions about their health. The measles outbreak was already underway in West Texas when Kennedy was confirmed. Yet even after the first child died and an adult succumbed to what officials suspect was measles, he failed to decisively advocate for vaccination. Instead, he spent his first weeks in office touting cod liver oil with vitamin A as a cure. Although the World Health Organization recommends people with measles receive two doses of vitamin A to lessen the risk of complications, that advice is directed at children in low-resource countries with high rates of vitamin A deficiencies. 'There's no solid evidence for its use in high-income countries,' says Sean O'Leary, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at the University of Colorado. Vitamin A is not a cure for measles, nor can it prevent it. And taking too much of the supplement can be dangerous, as evidenced by the children hospitalized with liver damage in Texas amid the outbreak. Kennedy, who has spent years pushing the thoroughly discredited link between the MMR vaccine and autism, seems to be looking for more ways to weaken the public's confidence in this routine childhood shot. He falsely claimed last month that the vaccine causes deaths and is now pushing health agencies to reexamine its safety data. The outcome of that reexamination seems preordained. In his resignation last month from the Food and Drug Administration, Peter Marks, who oversaw vaccine approvals at the agency, said he came to realize the push wasn't a search for truth but a demand for 'subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.' In addition, Kennedy oversaw last week's massive cuts at HHS, which included gutting staffing and resources at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which tracks and guides the federal response to outbreaks. The public needs clear, accurate information from health leaders, not misinformation and half-truths about settled science. William Moss, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, explains that a sustained outbreak lasting more than 12 months would cause the US to lose its measles elimination status. That clock started in January, and it's too soon to predict the outcome. What is certain, however, is that the outbreak has shown no signs of slowing down. Since an initial cluster emerged in West Texas, more than 480 people have been infected in the state, and neighboring counties in New Mexico have reported another 54 cases. Infections have been reported in 21 states this year, including smaller ongoing outbreaks in Ohio and Kansas. The country has plenty of communities that look a lot like West Texas, with large swaths of vulnerable unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children and adults. The question, Moss says, is whether the virus manages to land in one of those spots and continues to fuel the outbreak in coming months. In a prescient episode of the medical drama The Pitt, a boy is brought into the emergency room nonresponsive and with a rash on his legs that puzzles the residents treating him. The senior attending doctor in the ER remarks how the case shows his age: the boy has measles, something the younger physicians have never seen. The scene captures how far we've come with measles — and all that we have to lose if public health leadership fails to offer a clear, authoritative message encouraging people to get vaccinated. We've already needlessly lost three people to measles. There don't have to be more heartbreaking deaths.
The Guardian
07-04-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Robert F Kennedy Jr claims anti-vax physicians healed ‘some 300 measles-stricken children'
Robert F Kennedy Jr followed up his attendance at the Texas funeral of a child who died from measles by praising two unconventional 'healers', one of whom was previously disciplined by the state's medical board for 'unusual use of risk-filled medications'. The US health secretary continued to send mixed messaging over the weekend about the measles outbreak that has now claimed at least three lives, including that of two children – first touting the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine as effective, then extolling the practitioners who have eschewed it in favor of vitamins and cod liver oil. For years, Kennedy has himself baselessly sowed doubt about vaccine safety and efficacy, and sparked alarm last month when he backed vitamins to treat the illness. At the time, he had stopped short of endorsing the MMR vaccine, which he minimized as merely a 'personal choice' rather than a public health and safety measure that long ago was proven effective. In a tweet Sunday following his presence in Seminole at the funeral of Daisy Hildebrand, an unvaccinated eight-year-old who died on 3 April, Kennedy said he had visited with Richard Bartlett and Ben Edwards – and claimed without evidence the anti-vax physicians had treated and healed 'some 300 measles-stricken Mennonite children'. The Texas Medical Board disciplined Bartlett in 2003 for his 'inappropriate treatment of patients with intravenous antibiotics and other medications'. Kennedy's tweet said Bartlett had used 'aerosolized budesonide and clarithromycin' to treat children with measles, two drugs Bartlett reportedly previously claimed were also ingredients in his 'magic bullet' treatment for Covid-19. Bartlett, who ran a short-lived congressional campaign in 2019, has something of a checkered past. During a lengthy medical career that he has said was 'a calling from God', patients complained of receiving 'unnecessary diagnostic tests, medications or treatments'. And in 2021, he received a criminal trespass warning after being caught allegedly rifling through trash bags at an Ector county hospital where he did not work. Edwards, meanwhile, has a vaccine-free 'wellness practice' at a converted barn building in Seminole where he promotes better nutrition and treats patients with cod liver oil and vitamins to control the measles outbreak, according to NBC News. Like Bartlett, Edwards is an advocate of budesonide, a corticosteroid more commonly used in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease – and inhaled to open airways in asthma patients. Kennedy has previously expressed admiration for the pair, telling Fox News last month that budesonide has produced 'very, very good results', and that patients had experienced 'almost miraculous and instantaneous' recoveries. Conversely, Kennedy talked up the MMR vaccine during his visit to Texas. He said the purpose of the trip was to comfort the families of Hildebrand and Kayley Fehr, a six-year-old whose death in February was the first from measles in the US in a decade. 'My intention was to come down here quietly to console the families and to be with the community in their moment of grief,' he said in an earlier post on Sunday to X. 'In early March, I deployed a CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] team to bolster local and state capacity for response across multiple Texas regions, supply pharmacies and Texas run clinics with needed MMR vaccines and other medicines and medical supplies. 'Since that time, the growth rates for new cases and hospitalizations have flattened. The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine.' Kennedy said as of Sunday there were '642 confirmed cases of measles across 22 states, 499 of those in Texas'. The US health and human services department confirmed the death of Hildebrand to NBC late Saturday, stating that the cause of the child's death remained under investigation. On Sunday, a spokesperson for the UMC Health System in Lubbock, Texas, said that the child had been hospitalized before dying and was 'receiving treatment for complications of measles', which is easily preventable through vaccination. According to authorities, Fehr was also unvaccinated. NBC reported that Gaines county, which incorporates Seminole, has one of the highest vaccine exemption rates in Texas, at nearly 18% compared to 3% nationally.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. Touts Bogus Measles Treatment Hours After Burying 8-Year-Old Child
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted the work of two controversial 'healers' Sunday—just hours after advocating for vaccinations and attending the funeral of a child who died as part of a measles outbreak taking over Texas. Kennedy praised Dr. Richard Bartlett, who, according to CNN, has a history of using unconventional treatments and who was disciplined for 'unusual use of risk-filled medications' by the Texas Medical Board in 2003. While none of the patients at the time had measles, the Texas Medical Board found that Bartlett had misdiagnosed his patients and mismanaged their care. He was cleared to return to practice in 2005. Kennedy then touted the work of Dr. Ben Edwards, who, according to The New York Times, is a vocal antivaxxer and who has a 'wellness clinic' that dishes out vitamin C supplements and cod liver oil, both as a lemon-flavored drink and unflavored soft gels. In his latest X post, Kennedy was flanked by two families affected by the measles outbreak. 'In Seminole, Texas, with Jake and Tina Fehr whose 2-year-old daughter, Helena was just discharged after three weeks in the ICU, Peter and Eva Fehr whose daughter, Kayley, 6, passed in February, and Pete and Eva Hildebrand whose daughter, Daisy, 8, we buried this afternoon,' Kennedy wrote. 'I also visited with these two extraordinary healers, Dr. Richard Bartlett and Dr. Ben Edwards who have treated and healed some 300 measles-stricken Mennonite children using aerosolized budesonide and clarithromycin.' Kennedy went to Gaines County, he said, to comfort the family of 8-year-old Daisy Hildebrand, the second child in the U.S. to die from the outbreak that has swept 22 states. 'It was a heartbreaking day, but I felt so much warmth and love from the entire Mennonite community. I have bonded with many of these resilient, hardworking, resourceful, and God-loving people over the past three months and it was good to finally meet them in person,' Kennedy wrote. Hildebrand was unvaccinated and had no underlying health conditions, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement. She tested positive for measles and hospitalized, but passed away last Thursday from what the child's doctors described as 'measles pulmonary failure,' the statement read. Hildebrand's death marked the second death of a child in Texas since the beginning of the outbreak, which began in January. School-aged Kayley Fehr—who was also unvaccinated—died in February. Hildebrand's funeral took place on Sunday. Kennedy was spotted outside a Mennonite church where the services were held, but he did not speak at a later press conference. Instead, he wrote on X that, 'I came to Gaines County, Texas, today to comfort the Hildebrand family after the loss of their 8-year-old daughter Daisy... my intention was to come down here quietly to console the families and to be with the community in their moment of grief.' He added that he 'got to know the family of 6-year-old Kayley Fehr after she passed away in February. I also developed bonds with and deep affection for other members of this community during that difficult time.' Kennedy has been vocal for years about his opposition to vaccines. He has previously described vaccinations as a 'personal choice' and downplayed the severity of the current measles outbreak, describing it as 'not unusual.' Prior to this year, the U.S. had not recorded any measles-related deaths in a decade. 'It does cause deaths every year,' Kennedy said about the MMR vaccine to Sean Hannity on Fox News earlier this year. 'It causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis and blindness, etcetera. And so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves.' Kennedy has also claimed that vitamin A and cod liver oil are effective treatments for measles. So bold were Kennedy's claims, they forced the American Medical Association to release a statement last month urging: 'As parents, our instinct is to do everything we can to keep our children safe. In the case of measles–a highly contagious disease that can cause severe health problems—that means getting your children vaccinated today. The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is extraordinarily safe and effective." However, Kennedy struck a different tone on Sunday, urging residents to get vaccinated. 'The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine. I've spoken to Governor Abbott, and I've offered HHS' continued support. At his request, we have redeployed CDC teams to Texas. We will continue to follow Texas' lead and to offer similar resources to other affected jurisdictions.'
