A Call to Heel
Beleaguered and fatigued physicians nationwide hit their foreheads in a collective “Doh!” last week after a brave pioneer in New Jersey ran afoul of the arbitrary laws that stalk us all these days.
A sixty-two-year-old healer named Maria MacBurnie was arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license, forging health care claims, and distributing a “controlled, dangerous substance.” Please. Nowhere can I find exactly what the “dangerous” substance was, but it probably was unlikely to cause myocarditis (oops). And filling out health claims can be damn tricky, as any doctor who has ever had to deal with Medicare/’caid, workperson’s comp, travel insurance, or private health insurance. Mistakes happen, even if a mis-submitted code does occasionally lead to a visit from the men in black. And as for practicing without a license… doesn’t the Garden State know there was a pandemic on? Or did the collective memory of a state that closed its churches, gyms, and parks, but left liquor stores open collapse so quickly that they forgot about the need for boots-level primary care to get us all back on our feet? So what if MacBurnie cut a few corners, she was willing to step up when far too many were still cowering – but masked! – waiting for the all-clear, and fill a desperate void.
And did she ever. “Between March 2022 and June 2023, Macburnie treated patients out of Shore Medical Associates, located at 601 Route 37 West, Suite 101, in Toms River while posing as a licensed medical practitioner … Macburnie identified herself as Dr. Fe Almazon-Condit, a relative of Macburnie’s who has an active license to practice medicine…”
“Macburnie also wrote prescriptions under the name of Almazon-Condit and submitted multiple insurance claims and bills for services during a time when Almazon-Condit was unable to see and treat patients …” And who among us hasn’t covered for a colleague, or at least a pseudo-colleague?
Shore Medical Associates has closed, and a “voice message for the clinic said the office was permanently closed and advised patients to seek medical services elsewhere.” In the midst of a worsening doc-, uh, provider shortage, we can ill afford these capricious, access-limiting legal vendettas.
At present, there is absolutely no proof that the American Association of Nurse Practitioners has offered Macburnie an honorary degree or executive position, but I’m keeping my ears open.
Brilliant, Pat. I love the way your find and expose these things.
Benjamin, so true. Thanks for making that point.!
But New Jersey bans people from pumping their own gas! See the government knows what it is doing! For those who think bigger government is the answer.