Jeff Segal, MD, JD, FACS
It’s an easy call. Dr. Mark Weinberger is a rotten apple. More than 300 medical malpractice cases have been filed against him. Most haven’t even gotten started. In the first case to pop through, the estate of Phyllis Barnes vs. Weinberger, the jury delivered a $13 million verdict for the plaintiff.
Maybe Dr. Weinberger doesn’t care. He’s in prison. And his professional liability carrier is working overtime to distance themselves from having to provide legal defense.
A little background.
Dr. Weinberger was a busy sinus surgeon in suburban Chicago. And I mean busy. Patients alleged he ran a mill – which missed valid diagnoses and performed unnecessary surgery. He lived a lifestyle with private jets and all the accoutrements of the rich and famous.
Weinberger disappeared in 2004 while vacationing with his wife in Greece. She woke up one morning and found him missing. His wife, initially unwilling to believe that her husband had deliberately stranded her in Greece with a $40,000 bill for marina fees and no means of paying it, appealed to friends for help in getting home.
She waited a few days before she began to fear that he might not be coming back. When she returned to the States, she discovered a book he purchased – called How to be Invisible. Not a good sign.
Her next surprise: an endless procession of bills ($6 million) and no new cash. She was headed toward bankruptcy.
Weinberger was found by Italian police in 2009 – hiding in a tent in the mountains. While missing, federal prosecutors had indicted him on multiple counts of healthcare fraud. He pleaded guilty to 22 counts of health care fraud in exchange for four years in prison. Now it’s up to a federal judge to accept the deal.
Details of this drama were highlighted in Vanity Fair.
The doctor from hell! Just goes to show that there are bad apples in any basket. Second opinions just got a little more important to me! Thanks for sharing I will write about this on my blog get-into-medicalschool.com
Cheers,
Naomi
I’d like to know if it is just 4 years?
It should be MORE. . plus restitution, plus penalties.
Guys like this should pay and their wives and children should not benefit.
Interestingly, if you had signed your own “mutual privacy” agreement as one of Dr. Weinberger’s patients, you wouldn’t be able to publish these facts.
As one who investigates doctor misbehavior for a living, I followed the Mark Weinberger case with interest. The only qualm I have with the above article is the title.
“Rotten Apple?” Assuredly. But the title begs the saying, “One bad apple . . .” And you know the rest.
For the record, the sad truth is, on the very day that Mark Weinberger’s verdict was handed down, 10 other physicians nationwide were also found Guilty of Felony-level crimes. I’m pleased to do the math for you: it works out to be almost exactly 2,500 physician convictions every year. How long has this been going on? Decades.
Their range of crimes?
Monstrous medical & billing fraud; Fake Botox injections; Patient sexual assault; Drug-running; Performing thousands of unnecessary procedures & operations for profit; Rape; Child abuse; Murder; Filming their nude patients.
For an indication of just how bad things have gotten, here’s a little exercise: Type “Doctor Convicted” into your Google Search space. Make note of the “hits.”
Then type “Gang Member Convicted” and make note of those hits.
Again, I’ll be pleased to do the basic math:
NO professionals in society generate more known crime; cause more unnecessary suffering and death; nor evade more appropriate discipline, than the errant doctor population.
A FEW bad apples?
Hey I checked out convicted attorneys and you should see the hits on that. I also checked out convicted priests, pastors, policemen, teachers, accountants, pharmacists. I basically think there are a lot of bad apples everywhere.