OIG v. Burditt, MD (it could happen to you)

Following a five-month evaluation by Texas Medical Association's Physician Patient Advocacy Committee, the association has loaned its support to Victoria obstetrician/gynecologist Michael L. Burditt, MD, whom the government has charged with violating federal guidelines for hospital transfers. The Office of the Inspector General is challenging Dr Burditt's treatment and hospital transfer decision made for Rosa Rivera and her fetus on Dec 5, 1986. Advocacy Committee Chairman Nancy Dickey, MD, and committee member D. Clifford Burross, MD, along with consultant Joseph R. Miller, MD, a board certified obstetrician/gynecologist from Wichita Falls, extensively reviewed the medical records, interviewed Dr Burditt and other Victoria physicians, and reviewed the medical literature before presenting their findings and conclusions to the full committee and to TMA President Val F. Borum, MD, in June 1988. Believing that the case exemplifies the dangers of the OIG evaluating transfer decisions without using the regular quality assurance Texas Medical Foundation Medicare peer review process, the committee, Dr Borum, and the TMA General Counsel, joined by the Victoria-Goliad-Jackson County Medical Society, made their recommendation of support to the TMA Board of Trustees in July 1988. This article describes the medical events, the OIG investigation, and the hearing before a Department of Health and Human Services administrative law judge on the charges of wrongful conduct.