We recently learned of a troubling situation where someone was posing as an allergist, diagnosing and treating patients in their own doctor’s office. Here is the link to the article in the AJC:
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/fake-doctor-charged-with-919731.html.
In this extreme example of substandard care, the Atlanta Journal Constitution has reported that Matthew Paul Brown, 29, of Nashville, Tennessee was indicted last week on charges of health care fraud in Atlanta. Unfortunately, he impersonated an allergist and contracted with several primary care providers to treat their allergic patients with skin testing and allergy shots. His arrangement included that he be paid a percentage of what was billed for this treatment and he apparently collected a significant percentage of approximately 1.2 million dollars over the last 1.5 years.
The doctors, nurses and office staff of the Atlanta Allergy & Asthma Clinic have taken great pride in providing the greater Atlanta area with expert allergy care for the last 35 years. All our physicians are board certified by the American Board of Allergy & Immunology. Our expertise has been appreciated by patients and referring doctors alike and so we've grown to one of the largest allergy centers in the United States. We take pride in maintaining the highest standard of care providing state-of-the-art allergy diagnosis and treatment for our patients. We are deeply troubled when we hear about patients receiving substandard medical care.
While Mr. Brown’s illegal and shady business is not common, we have learned that several medical practices in our community are offering allergy diagnosis and treatment services to their patients. When patients receive their allergy care in such a setting, we feel they may be at greater risk for receiving substandard care, even if such care is not deemed fraudulent as with the case of Mr. Brown. To protect the safety of all allergy patients, we feel obligated to inform everyone about this disturbing, substandard medical practice and point out the difference in expertise and experience provided by a board certified allergist compared to allergy services offered by untrained or undertrained providers. We hope that no patient receives substandard care and encourage all patients and physicians to ensure that their allergy care is being provided by appropriately trained allergy specialists.