An Arcata doctor embroiled in a protracted fight with the California Medical Board over allegations that she excessively prescribed opioids has reached a deal that will allow her to retain her license.
Connie Basch admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, which will allow her to continue practicing under a monitoring system and require her to take a number of specified courses through a 35-month probationary period. Basch, who runs the Full Circle Center for Integrative Medicine in Arcata and whose patients have vocally come to her defense, has repeatedly defended her conduct, saying she cares for patients who came to her using excessive amounts of opioids for chronic pain and that state guidelines for weaning such patients are potentially dangerous.
“I settled because I could not afford the legal fees to fight it further and because I was offered a deal that allowed me to continue to prescribe as I see fit so that no one would get cut off their meds suddenly,” Basch told Pain News Network. “I was afraid if I went to a hearing and tried to appear (without an attorney) and somehow pissed off the judge I might wind up with a settlement that prohibited prescribing for a year, which was their initial proposal, and that there might be preventable deaths in my patient population as a result.”
The allegation filed in May of 2019 focused on Basch’s care for five patients and alleged she acted with gross negligence in continuing to prescribe patients large amounts of opioids, failing to maintain adequate records and ignoring red flags for opioid abuse.
The settlement agreement requires Basch to keep detailed records of all drugs she prescribes and to make them immediately available for inspection by state investigators. Further, the settlement requires Basch to enroll in educational courses on prescribing practices, medical record keeping and medical ethics at her own expense, while also coming under a program of professional monitoring by a physician in good standing with the board. The monitor is then required to submit quarterly written reports to the board evaluating Basch’s performance.
If Basch fails to satisfactorily complete the 35-month probationary period, her license will be revoked under the terms of the board’s order.
Read both the full accusation filed against Basch and the settlement agreement here.
This article appears in Vaxed.
I an so pleased that Connie Basch hasn’t lost her license
She is a great doctor.
She’s a talented and dedicated John Hopkins trained, phi beta cappa, doctor with an incredible track record, many awards, wisdom, and grace. This event is actually an indictment of the current state of medicine rather than of her practice, and she is not the only good doctor to face unreasonable enforcement of new standards of practice based on politics, not patients. (No doubt the usual trolls will show up here, as they do, but gratefully they have no bearing on reality.)
This is the comment I left on the Pain News Network site when they posted the article about Dr. Basch recently: Dr. Basch is my GP and, in my adult life (I am in my early 70s), one of the finest doctors Ive ever had. She is a true health partner with her patients and really, really listens, explains and educates. I love that after each appointment I receive a printed summary of what was discussed, instructions, suggestions, etc. She is one of the most caring, hardest working, and best patient advocates I know. I was appalled when these troubles started for her, as it wholly misrepresents her beliefs, her practice and her willingness to take on and help those in needand I wrote the CA Medical Board and told them so, as did many others. If anything, she is a model of how to approach this issue, and not to be punished for it. While I am not a chronic pain patient (knock wood!), I have witnessed her approach to helping those who may be. [In fact, it was in looking for/researching ways to support her, that I came across this, the Pain News Network, site and signed on for the newsletter.] It distresses me that she is being put in this position and I fully support the pragmatic steps she is taking to mitigate this, once again putting her patients first. Neither she, nor her dedicated staff, deserve this and I will continue to support her medical practice in any way I am able. As I said in my letter to Med. Board: I am fortunate that she is my doctor, and any one of you would be too.