Knowing it is the holiday season and that elected officials are busy humans too, I continue to research sympathetic representatives who can champion my cause, hoping to find one or two who have time to invest in me. I find Senator Gerald Boudreaux, who supported Senator Milkovich’s bill providing oversight to the corrupt LSBME.
https://create.piktochart.com/output/34853999-how-antitrust-affects-louisiana-midwives-2018 Dear Senator, I want to thank you for your support of Sen Milkovich’s bill that provided oversight for the LSBME. My midwifery license was destroyed because of Ms mouton. It is indefinitely suspended even though no one was hurt nor injured. I cannot get my sanctions lifted. Please consider helping me deal with this horrible board. My story is below. Thank you for your time.
With the recommendation of Dr. Feldman, I begin contacting a few choice (Rep. Steven Carter, Senator John Milkovich, and Rep. Katrina Jackson) elected officials to see if political pressure can help persuade the LSBME to employ ethics or fairness into its dealings.
Dear Representatives, I am diligently trying to work to comply with the burdensome sanctions imposed on me by the LSBME, but I am coming up to roadblock after roadblock. My compliance officer consistently changes how I am supposed to fulfill my sanctions and will not send me a test I am supposed to take. How am I supposed to remove my license from suspension if the LSBME will not let me fulfill the sanctions? I have communicated with the new Director of Investigations, Larry Cresswell, but he is no help either. Please consider helping me navigate this. I am not sure what else to do. I have been corresponding with the LSBME for over a year and have gotten nowhere. My license has been suspended for over three years. I cannot get a job doing anything because this suspension comes up in a background check. I have cancer and need to be able to get medical care. Thank you for your time.
My compliance officer finally replied to my 5th or 6th email. The blatant obstruction of justice occurring at the hands of the LSBME is disgusting. These people are preventing me from earning any kind of living because they are taking their sweet time deciding how I can complete these sanctions, which BTW they adjudicated three and a half years ago. So, they have not prepared anything since the adjudication? Did they just not expect me to ever try and get off suspension? How is this legal? Oh, right. It isn’t. They do not have oversight and have been running amok destroying healthcare providers lives left and right.
But….. I am finally making progress, so let’s relish in that for a minute…….Ok, moving on. I am not sure if the new director is helping push my issues through the cartel which is the medical board or if the legislature is putting political pressure on them or if my compliance officer has run out of excuses. Either way, I am happy that after a year of communicating with Ms. Spooner that I will finally be receiving some straight answers. Sanction 2 is fulfilled–I needed 3 courses but took about 200. Apparently now I can prepare for the quiz for Sanction 3 even though last year Ms. Spooner told me I would have to complete Sanction 1 first. Speaking of Sanction 1, Dr. Cresswell changed Ms. Spooner’s original directive requiring me to attend a drug and alcohol treatment center for no reason. He said I could find a physician in Florida at which to have my mental/physical evaluation. And finally, I can pay my fees and fine in installments instead of one lump sum of over $17,000. Yay. Oh, wait. Ms. Spooner says I need to have the payment plan approved- even though the Director just told me to ask her to set it up? Huh. Are they not communicating? No, they are because I am ccing both of them in my emails. It is interesting that they are not on the same page. No, it isn’t interesting, its typical corruption, ineptitude, and incompetency. No one at the LSBME knows what they are doing. God save us all.
11/02/2018 Jm, The course information you have submitted will be sufficient to satisfy sanction 2 of your Order. I have contacted the Education department to prepare the Midwifery Quiz. I will contact you when it is ready. In the meantime, please review the rules for Licensed Midwives on our website to prepare for the quiz. This link will take you to the rules:
11/03/2018 Ms spooner, Thank you for finally replying to my original email which was over three weeks ago. I have been patiently waiting for a decision. That is wonderful news to finally know that sanction 2 is fulfilled by my over 300 hrs of continuing education. Likewise I’m equally excited to hear that the LSBME finally decided how I can fulfill sanction 3. I’m looking forward to hearing when the quiz will be ready and taking it. Dr. Cresswell mentioned you’d be able to help me with a payment plan for the extortion required to fulfill sanction 1. I’m ready to set up a payment plan whenever you are. Finally, Dr. Cresswell had mentioned that I am not required to attend a drug and alcohol treatment center however all of the places on the list that you and dr mouton supplied in order for me to satisfy the mental/ health evaluation are indeed drug and alcohol treatment facilities. Can you give me the name of a doctor in central Florida where I can get this sanction accomplished? This is where I live and it’s burdensome for me to have to travel as I do not have an income right now because I cannot find a job with this suspension on my record. If not please tell me who can pre approve this sanction. Thank you JM
11/7/2018 JM, The Board would have to approve a payment plan for you since it is a requirement that must be fulfilled prior to reinstatement. If you have a physician or facility you would like to use in Florida, please submit the name and contact information so we can contact them to obtain the necessary information to determine if they can be approved.Thanks,ES
Hi Ms. Spooner. Are you ever going to reply? I’ve sent this five or six times and I’ve sent a copy to Dr. Cresswell. Is this not something you can address as my compliance officer? If not, please let me know who can answer my questions.
I just wanted confirmation that these Board of Nurses courses (from RN.com) I’ve taken from the are sufficient. Im including a list of all the courses over the last four years. You’ll see that I have over 344 CEUs of which 61.95 CEUs (23 classes) are in Medical Record Keeping, 32 CEUs (13 classes) are in Medical Ethics and 53.9 CEUs (17 classes) are in the evaluation and identification of high risk pregnancies. I’m sure you’ll find these as more than sufficient in fulfilling this sanction 2. Thank you.
Hi Ms. Spooner. Are you ever going to reply? I’ve sent this like four or five times and I’ve sent a copy to Dr. Cresswell. Is this not something you can address as my compliance officer? If not, please let me know who can answer my questions.
I just wanted confirmation that these Board of Nurses courses (from RN.com) I’ve taken from the are sufficient. Im including a list of all the courses over the last four years. You’ll see that I have over 344 CEUs of which 61.95 CEUs (23 classes) are in Medical Record Keeping, 32 CEUs (13 classes) are in Medical Ethics and 53.9 CEUs (17 classes) are in the evaluation and identification of high risk pregnancies. I’m sure you’ll find these as more than sufficient in fulfilling this sanction 2. Thank you.
It is not often that I see eye to eye with physicians. It isn’t that I do not like them, but usually our philosophies and approaches are vastly different. You’d think having the commonality of wanting to serve others would be enough to unite us, but sometimes it isn’t. Thankfully this is not the case this time. Despite our working environments being surgical suite vs. living room, Dr. Feldman, an anesthesiologist, and I have had a more similar plight through licensure land. Sure, his care revolves around easing the pain of laboring women while mine involves encouraging them through it, but our hearts, souls, and minds all focus on helping people through life’s difficult journeys. The first time I read about Dr. Feldman, his wife, and staff, was on a WordPress blog post from Sound Off Louisiana. I have attached the post below. http://www.soundoffla.com/?p=1750#comment-789
I could feel the frustration and anger in his quotes. I could see his passion in the accompanying video. Our style of healthcare may not be similar, but our plight with this medical board is—Dr. Feldman also lost everything because a competing doctor wanted him gone. This is all too similar to my situation where obstetrician Dr. Dickerson and fellow midwife Sherri Daigle, my two main competitors in Baton Rouge, encouraged and coached a naive photographer to turn me into the board. Were these allegations even true or fair? No, in both of our cases. Were both of us railroaded out of practice unable to find work anywhere else? Yes. Have both of us faced unimaginable hardships and continued backlash from the board who does not want to see us practicing again? Yes. Removing healthcare providers for antitrust issues does nothing to protect the consumers. For cases like mine where I had to discharge a client three days before she gave birth–she chose to have her baby alone because she did not have time nor money to set up an alternate plan. Likewise, Dr. Feldman was forced to leave his clients without access to pain management. Does anyone know how hard it is to get into see a doctor? Sometimes it takes months if you are a new client. Dr. Feldman is a world-renowned anesthesiologist who has been reduced to sleeping in his RV in Wal-Mart parking lots—all because of a board that lacks oversight and refuses to bow to the law.
Finding Dr. Feldman has been a blessing. His energy is palpable. His desire to see justice served is as important as seeing no one else harmed by the medical board. It isn’t as lonely knowing there is someone else out there in the same boat, and as I continue to fight the board, it is nice having his expertise on my side. Though we have yet to meet, we plan to soon and will eventually file a lawsuit against one of these states. And perhaps one day we may actually work together toward making births better.
Sen. John Milkovich’s close on his “physician’s bill of rights” draws sharp rebukes from many of his House colleagues and leads to attorney Jack Stolier being escorted out of the meeting.
May 6, 2018
Louisiana State Sen. John Milkovich, D-Shreveport
At the Louisiana House Committee on Health and Welfare meeting of Wednesday, May 2, 2018, Louisiana State Sen. John Milkovich presented his physician’s bill of rights. Video highlights of that event follow: Milkovich’s heated closing, which led to numerous rebukes by House Committee members and to the ouster (not captured on video) of New Orleans attorney Jack Stolier, who, according to one source in attendance, charged directly at Sen. Milkovich upon him having uttered that Stolier engaged in an affair with the director of investigations of the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners.
As is obvious from the preceding video, though Stolier was unable to reach Milkovich, it didn’t stop him from yelling several times to Milkovich that “you’re a bald face liar” regarding statements Milkovich made entailing the alleged affair.
Regarding the preceding statements by Milkovich entailing Louisiana Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera not being provided with access to the investigative files of the Board, that was an interesting point of contention during the meeting as evidenced by the following video clip: Testimony about the degree, if any, that Purpera has been afforded an opportunity to examine the Board’s investigative files.
Soon after Sen. Gerald Long, R-Winnfield, provided support for Milkovich’s bill, Dr. Greg Stephens provided testimony indicating that he had been railroaded by the Board and that Dr. David Hammond, Medical Director of the Healthcare Professionals’ Foundation of Louisiana, had essentially told him to just suck it up and take it “because you have no due process rights with the Medical Board.” Hammond, while acknowledging his conversations with Stephens did take place, stated that Stephens was taking his comments “out of context” and presenting them “in a manner that I don’t believe is accurate.” Sen. Long provides support for Milkovich’s bill, followed by Stephens testifying to his alleged railroading by the Board with Hammond, to some extent, refuting that testimony.
Stephens was accused of not properly safeguarding pre-signed prescription pads and prescribing to family members without adequate documentation in their medical records. He was also cited for “performing a minor office procedure on a patient in the clinic without appropriately documenting such in the medical record or assuring that the office was able to comply with requirements for any untoward complications.” He is no longer allowed to practice in Louisiana; however, he is practicing in Arkansas.
There can be perhaps no more public and vocal protestor of the Louisiana Medical Board than Dr. Arnold Feldman, who has directly accused Dr. Michael Burdine, a former direct competitor of his and a former member of the Medical Board, of “conducting an organized campaign to eliminate me, his key competition in Baton Rouge, by having my medical license revoked and shutting me down.” Dr. Feldman’s testimony, in its entirety, follows: Dr. Arnold Feldman’s testimony entailing the Louisiana Medical Board’s investigative tactics, along with that of his wife and a former employee whom Feldman insists that he was forced to terminate or face an immediate suspension of his medical license.
10/19/2018 Hi Ms. Spooner. This is the third time I’m sending this email. Is there a reason you are not communicating with me?
I just wanted confirmation that these Board of Nurses courses (from RN.com) I’ve taken from the are sufficient. Im including a list of all the courses over the last four years. You’ll see that I have over 344 CEUs of which 61.95 CEUs (23 classes) are in Medical Record Keeping, 32 CEUs (13 classes) are in Medical Ethics and 53.9 CEUs (17 classes) are in the evaluation and identification of high risk pregnancies. I’m sure you’ll find these as more than sufficient in fulfilling this sanction 2. Thank you. JM
Esparonzia Spooner <espooner@lsbme.la.gov>
Oct 19, 2018, 6:26 PM
to me
Ms. Macaluso,
I have been out of the office and have not had time to review your courses with the new Director of Investigations. You can follow-up with me on Tuesday to see if they were approve. From a cursory review, what you submitted appears to be adequate.
This email transmission, including any attachments, is intended only for the named recipient(s) and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and/or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you have received this transmission in error, or are not the named recipient(s), permanently delete this transmission, including any attachments.
In compliance with Act 2018-655, the Board gives notice to its licensees and applicants of their opportunity to file a complaint about board actions and board procedures. You may submit such complaints to one or more of the following organizations:
1. Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners; 630 Camp Street, New Orleans, LA 70130; (504) 568-6820; lsbme@lsbme.la.gov.
2. Committee on House & Governmental Affairs; La. House of Representatives; PO Box 44486, Baton Rouge, LA 70804; (225) 342-2403; h&ga@legis.la.gov
3. Committee on Senate & Governmental Affairs; La Senate;PO Box 94183, Baton Rouge, LA 70804; (225) 342-9845; s&g@legis.la.gov.
From: Jackie Mac <jmacmidwife@gmail.com> Sent: Friday, October 19, 2018 4:28 PM To: Esparonzia Spooner <espooner@lsbme.la.gov> Subject: Third email. Pls respond ASAP. Sanction 2 Jacqueline Macaluso
Jacqueline Macaluso <jmacmidwife@gmail.com>
Oct 21, 2018, 2:26 PM
to Esparonzia
Ms. Spooner I didn’t realize you were away from the office. Usually I receive an auto reply stating ones absence in that circumstance. Regardless please pass along the name of the new director and contact info. Thank you. Jacqueline Macaluso
I never thought I would have arrived at the place where I cannot afford medical care, but here I am. Because I have not had medical care since last January, and it does not look like I will have a license anytime soon, I apply for Medicaid. The county I live in has a federally-funded program that provides medical care to people who fall through the cracks–the ones who don’t fit the criteria of someone who lives in a state who didn’t expand medicaid. I apply online, but my life insurance, which I keep because I have cancer, creates a flag and the medicaid office wants me to make a personal appearance in a local office. I didn’t realize this personal appearance had to be made in a timely manner and have since received a letter disqualifying me from straight medicaid, which I knew would happen. I just want to keep tabs on my thyroid cancer. Hopefully either I will get licensed soon or health insurance.
So I practically have another college degree based on the number of continuing education units I have taken in the last three years. For reference in order to recertify a midwifery license in Louisiana, one needs 15 CEUs/per year. I have 344. Not only do I have a EMT certificate, BS degree, AA degree in midwifery, and Diploma in Midwifery, I have the NARM’s most recent certification— the bridge certificate to essentially make my education standard. I am a preceptor able to teach fledgling midwifery students. I am basically over-qualified for any out-of-hospital midwife position. States should be clamoring to have me practice there. They should be handing me licenses. Since my compliance officer still (since 2017) has not answered my question about which classes will fulfill sanction 2, I reach out to her once again.
Hi Ms. Spooner. I just wanted confirmation that these Board of Nurses courses (from RN.com) I’ve taken from the are sufficient. I’m including a list of all the courses over the last four years. You’ll see that I have over 344 CEUs of which 61.95 CEUs (23 classes) are in Medical Record Keeping, 32 CEUs (13 classes) are in Medical Ethics and 53.9 CEUs (17 classes) are in the evaluation and identification of high risk pregnancies. I’m sure you’ll find these as more than sufficient in fulfilling this sanction 2. Thank you. JM
Because applying for licensure shouldn’t be easy right? I mean what value exactly does the Constitution hold if I cannot pursue employment in my field, or any field for that matter, despite never having had anything happen. Its absurd. So, in timely fashion I lawyer up because you know that is where I am at with life. I am blessed to be able to have the ability to pay on credit for decent lawyers in my life (except for my divorce one, but that was because she was literally the only one who would take me, but I digress.) So, I found one, that was honestly perplexed by the Department of Health’s actions. Like I stated previously, the DOH usually allows the applicant the ability to withdrawal an application without harm to his/her record. They are not letting me do this, interestingly. So, my attorney states that he will begin the appeal process under the guise of hoping to make a deal with them for both of us to avoid having to go to a hearing in lieu of having my license withdrawn. Whatever. At this point I am so fed up with midwifery and licensure. In the meantime, I reopen my ongoing battle with my incompetent compliance officer in Louisiana in order to try and get off suspension there before my appeal date in Florida. Tell me why I did not go into dentistry again?
My Journey as a Licensed Midwife in Louisiana 