NOVEMBER 2005
WHAT TO DO WHEN THE ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL AND PROFESSIONAL REGULATION COMES KNOCKING ON YOUR DOOR
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The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) is in charge of licensure and disciplinary proceedings against mental health professionals. Getting a phone call from the IDFPR or having them come to your office is a very anxious moment. Receiving a notice of complaint from the IDFPR can be very traumatic for the clinician. In order to protect your license at all times, it is important to appreciate how the IDFPR works.
Any person may complain to the IDFPR about any clinician. An individual who wishes to file a complaint against a therapist simply has to contact the IDFPR office and fill the appropriate paperwork. After that process is completed, the matter is usually assigned to a department investigator. That investigator takes statements and gathers information to determine whether there has been a potential violation of licensing law or a violation of the Medical Practice Act. During this investigation process, the investigator for the IDFPR often will come to the clinician=s office and request a meeting with the clinician in order to take a statement. Although the IDFPR investigators present themselves as a Afriend@ of the clinician who are merely doing investigation work regarding a complaint filed against the clinician, it is important for the therapist to appreciate that the interests of the IDFPR investigator are adverse to the clinician. It is our recommendation that a clinician never speak with any representative from the IDFPR without an attorney present. Many times the IDFPR investigator will show up at the office without prior notice and without a valid executed authorization pursuant to the Illinois Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act. Too often, clinicians speak with the IDFPR investigators without counsel being present and may lead to problems in the future.
After the investigation is completed the case is usually referred to a staff attorney in the prosecutions division. Many times cases referred to the prosecutions unit are dealt with on an informal basis through a consent order. By proceeding informally, both the time and expense of a formal hearing are avoided and allows the parties to negotiate a settlement. Under the consent order process, an Informal Conference is held which informs the clinician as to the nature of the complaint, what the investigation division has learned and allows the clinician to respond to those complaints. The therapist is expected to appear at the Informal Conference and it is highly recommended that he/she brings an attorney. The prosecuting attorney and a Medical Disciplinary Board member are also present. When both sides are finished discussing the allegations, the prosecutor and the board member meet privately and outside the presence of the clinician and his attorney. After that discussion, the clinician and attorney go back into the conference room and are informed of the disciplinary action recommended, if any.
If the case is not closed at the disciplinary conference and there is no agreement as to the type of sanction, then the process of filing a formal complaint begins.
If a case goes to a full formal hearing, it is held before an administrative law judge who is employed with the IDFPR and a Medical Board member. At the end of the hearing, the administrative law judge makes a recommendation and sends that recommendation, along with the complete file and transcript, to the Medical Disciplinary Board for deliberation. The Board will decide whether the therapist=s license should remain in good standing or be disciplined. Discipline can include license termination, revocation, suspension, probation, reprimand, fines and censure.
Over the years we have seen mental health professionals get called into the IDFPR for a myriad of reasons. The IDFPR has investigated our clients for: boundary violations, making (and not making) a report pursuant to the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act, accepting gifts, wrong diagnosis, 604(b) Evaluations, breech of confidentiality, wrong medications, prescription issues and failure to respond to patients. There is no area of practice that is Asafe@ from the IDFPR. Therefore, it is important that clinicians do everything they can to defend their licenses when the IDFPR comes knocking on their door.
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he Psychiatric/Legal Newsletter is published quarterly and is offered as a free service of Beranek, Feiereisel, Kasbohm & Hammer, 55 West Monroe, Suite 3400, Chicago, Illinois 60603, (312) 782-9255, to interested members of the psychiatric community. The provision of the information contained within is informational only, and no attorney/client or other relationship is intended or inferred. If you would like more information about the issues in the above article, or about Beranek, Feiereisel & Kasbohm & Hammer, please address your inquiries to Scott Hammer at shammer@bfkhlaw.com. You may
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