The state has suspended the licenses of eight doctors who owned a medical group that abandoned thousands of patients’ records last summer after filing for bankruptcy.
The Illinois Department of Professional Regulation announced the action Thursday against Dr. Michael DeStefano, president of Merrionette Park-based Meyer Medical Physicians Group Ltd., and seven former partners.
The department stayed the suspension for seven days, giving the doctors time to make the records available. After that, they face a hearing and possible disciplinary action, including revocation of their licenses.
A complaint accompanying the suspension accuses the doctors of “dishonorable, unethical or unprofessional conduct” for failing to transfer patient medical records after their clinics closed. It also says the doctors breached their responsibilities and caused harm to their patients.
Meyer Medical operated clinics in Chicago, Orland Park, Tinley Park and Aurora. DeStefano and his associates also owned another partnership that operated clinics in Hoffman Estates and Elk Grove Village.
When the clinics closed, patients found themselves without access to their medical histories, children’s immunization forms, mammograms, X-rays and other critical records.
Hundreds of people complained to the Department of Professional Regulation and the Illinois attorney general’s office.
Last fall more than 130,000 charts from Meyer Medical patients were left in a former auto repair garage in Merrionette Park.
Another 98,000 patient records were abandoned last summer in the basement of the Hoffman Estates medical office building. That clinic was operated by Hoffman/Elk Grove Physicians Group.
The Department of Professional Regulation ordered the suspensions after it determined that the doctors failed to keep a bankruptcy court agreement with a Mt. Prospect company to store the Meyer Medical records and make them available to patients.
The doctors were to pay Cardone Record Services Inc. $22,000 to copy the records so they could be transferred to patients or their new physicians.
“They have not paid a dime to that record-keeping company,” department spokesman Tony Sanders said. “We felt it was an emergency, so we’re taking this action now to ensure the records are preserved and made available to the patients.
“That was their agreement, and we expect them to live up to it.”
Besides DeStefano, the suspended doctors are Win Myint, William Devlin McCarthy, Deborah Basile, Nicolas Stamat, Jerry Coltro, Mohammad Imandoust and Virendra Mathur.
DeStefano did not return a phone call.
Myint said Thursday that he was one of several doctors who split with DeStefano in a dispute in August and resigned as shareholders in Meyer Medical.
Myint said he did nothing wrong and had no control over the patients’ charts. He said he was surprised to hear of the suspension and was afraid it would threaten his livelihood.
“Right or wrong, I will be willing to pay” to have the records transferred, Myint said. “This is the only thing I know how to do. … That’s a very scary thing for me. Whatever it takes, I will do it.”
Alexian Brothers Hospital Network, which owns the building that housed the Hoffman Estates clinic, is storing and transferring those records to patients or their doctors.
More than 17,000 of the 98,000 records have been transferred to date, costing $140,000, said Penny Higgins, a hospital vice president. The hospital receives about 25 requests a day for records, she said
On Friday, the hospital will begin moving the records to a warehouse. Unclaimed records will be destroyed at the end of the year, she said.
The attorney general’s office has received nearly 200 complaints about the medical records, according to spokeswoman Melissa Merz. The attorney general has no jurisdiction to prosecute doctors for abandoning records, Merz said, but has been working with the Department of Professional Regulation to resolve complaints.
