Dr. Carlos Contreras has been in a federal prison since he pleaded guilty to health fraud in September 2008. But a state consumer web site still lists him in West Palm Beach with a “clear and active” medical license -- and he's far from alone.
It's the policy of Florida's Department of Health not to post public information about arrests and convictions until a professional licensing board takes final action, no matter how long that takes.
So the DOH consumer web site shows Contreras at his old address in West Palm Beach with a medical license still “clear and active.”
The web site, which is supposed to inform the public about health professionals in the state, runs months and years behind real life. Even though pending complaints are public records after "probable cause" has been found by a Board of Medicine committee, they are not listed on the consumer site of doctors' profiles.
No exception is made for criminal convictions. The information is held until the administrative process works its way through and the Board of Medicine votes.
"To make it public while the due process is going on, that's just not the procedure of the department," said Eulinda Smith, a spokeswoman for DOH.
If a member of the public wants to know whether there is a pending case, she said, "they can always call us." It is not clear how the public is supposed to know that DOH omits the information and that a call is necessary.
A member of the Board of Medicine, informed of the policy on Friday, said he was surprised. "It's weird," said Bradley Levine.
For Sen. Don Gaetz, chairman of the Senate Health Regulation Committee, it's more than weird. "All the (state) Web sites need to be timely and accurate about these providers," he said.
DOH's policy of omitting from the consumer web site any information about pending complaints, even after they become public record, stretches back for years, ever since it began posting information about health professionals on the Internet. Previous spokesmen have attributed the policy to a concern for protection of doctors' due-process rights, with lobbying by medical groups and the defense bar. Others have said it would take too much work.
But Gaetz, R-Niceville, said it wouldn't be all that big a deal to put an asterisk on the pages of doctors who have a pending complaint, to alert the public. He said it's especially important if they've been arrested.
DOH should show "a little dose of common sense," he said.
Brad Ashwell of Florida Public Interest Research Group said Gaetz is right. "It's like any transparency issue," he said. "It would empower the public."