~DONATIONS GREATLY APPRECIATED~






Friday, May 5, 2017

Wall of Shame-Dr. Alexander Doman

Many of you have had experience with Dr. Alexander Doman, one of OWCP's best 'hit men' who, in my opinion deserves his place on my wall of shame.

I have written and submitted a formal complaint to OWCP in regard to Dr. Doman on behalf of all claimants who have experienced one of his "examinations".

If you have been directed by OWCP to attend an exam with Dr. Doman and his report indicates you exaggerated or magnified your symptoms, intentionally deceived him or were malingering, I highly recommend that you include your information in the complaint and submit it to OWCP as well.

OWCP will not stop using physicians like Dr. Doman unless or until the evidence against THEM is overwhelming and can no longer be ignored.

In addition, claimants can get copies of all the complaints against a physician by doing a FOIA request (see the How To section). By receiving the complaints, you have an argument against a physician.

For instance, if just ten of you insert your information and send your complaints to OWCP then these complaints should remain on file. Through a FOIA request other claimants can get redacted copies of the complaints. Those ten complaints can be used as an argument that Dr. Doman is biased and his report is not valid.

After OWCP receives three complaints against a doctor they're supposed to investigate.

Multiple complaints have the power to make OWCP and/or the ECAB take notice or at the very least provide an argument that can overturn OWCP's decision to give Dr. Doman's report weight of medical evidence in your claim. But imagine what twenty or thirty or fifty complaints would do.

Unless claimants band together and file complaints against these physicians, nothing is going to change. In the case of Dr. Doman, I've made it really easy to get these complaints filed.

A copy of the complaint is below which you can cut and paste and insert your information I've indicated in Red.

Updated 09/04/2019

 Here is a copy of the complaint:


Date: Insert Date


Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs
P.O. Box 8300
London, KY 40742

Insert your name

OWCP Claim Number: Insert your claim number
Date of Injury: Insert your date of injury



FORMAL COMPLAINT

To Whom It May Concern:

Consider this my formal complaint of bias against Office physician, Dr. Alexander N. Doman.

Dr. Doman has performed second opinion and referee examinations for the Office for at least twenty-two (22) years in at least eight (8) states (GA, MA, WI, NY, NC, VA, TX and TN) although a valid medical license could only be found in the state of GA (license #033313).

In addition, Dr. Doman was the Office referral physician under ECAB docket number 15-0640 issued 06/11/2015 in Guam.

Physicians do not normally practice medicine in multiple states especially without being licensed in the state(s) in which they practice. This leads one to believe Dr. Doman isn’t practicing medicine in multiple states, but performing examinations in multiple states for the Offices’ purposes.

It is unreasonable to think that the Office could not find a qualified second opinion or referee in the state in which the claimant lives and had to fly Dr. Doman in at great expense to examine claimants. This would give the appearance of prejudice as Dr. Doman consistently provides negative opinions against a claimant.

During an Office-directed second opinion examination of December 11, 2014 under claim number 062216370 Dr. Doman stated;

“There is also evidence of both symptom exaggeration during the examination.” [sic]
“It is again noted that there is strong evidence from the examination today of significant symptom magnification”

Dr. Doman provides the Office no rationale on how he arrived at this opinion. Nor does Dr. Doman provide or discuss the “strong evidence” he refers to in his December 11, 2014 second opinion report.

During an Office-directed second opinion examination of June 06, 2015 under claim number 142007938 Dr. Doman stated;

“This lady’s subjective complaints do grossly outweigh and do not correspond to the objective findings. The findings on examination indicate gross and intentional symptom exaggeration.”

Dr. Doman did not provide the Office any medical rationale as to how he came to this conclusion.

During an Office-directed second opinion examination of March 29, 2016 under claim number 140266302 Dr. Doman stated;

“The rationale for this is because this claimant’s physical examination clearly indicates that this claimant is exhibiting gross and extreme symptom magnification for the purposes of deceiving this examiner.”

During an Office-directed referee examination of August 02, 2016 under claim number 062353031 Dr. Doman stated;

“Gross and intentional symptom magnification for purposes of deceiving this examiner with complaints of severe back pain while in the prone position with simple attempts to flex her knees while in this position.”

During an Office–directed second opinion examination of 03/14/2017 under claim number 060661746 Dr. Doman stated;

“This gentleman has traumatic findings of intentional symptom magnification with complaints of severe back pain with simple attempts to flex both his left and the right knee while in the prone position on a nonphysiologic and nonanatomic basis.”

Additionally, Dr. Doman indicated “Malingering” as a diagnosis in this report. Malingering is considered conscious and willful with intent, the deliberate and fraudulent feigning of symptoms for which a person can be prosecuted for fraud. This is a serious allegation which Dr. Doman indicated was a “Diagnosis”, yet Dr. Doman provides no explanation as to how he arrived at the intent of this claimant’s alleged malingering.

Insert your information here

There are a limited number of Dr. Doman’s opinions available to me, however in eighteen (18) cases in front of the Employees Compensation Appeals Board, (ECAB or the Board) Dr. Doman stated various ways he believed claimants were falsifying their symptoms, using very similar terms and phrases in each of his reports;

Docket #
Issued
Dr. Doman’s report stated
99-1502
06/27/2000
Appellant displayed markedly inappropriate behavior that was psychogenic in nature.
03-2278
01/21/2004
“Subjective complaints of pain [did] not correspond with the objective findings.”
07-0102
10/02/2007
A self-limited disorder
08-2271
08/06/2009
Intentional symptom exaggeration. Diagnosis is that of a malingering patient. Purposely exaggerating her complaints, in the opinion of this examiner, for purposes of secondary gain.
09-1388
03/19/2010
Intentionally exaggerating her complaints for purposes of secondary gain. Stated appellant was malingering.
10-0455
09/15/2010
“Gross signs of intentional symptom magnification....” Stated appellant was malingering.
10-1197
02/14/2011
Subjective complaints outweighed the objective findings.
11-0690
10/13/2011
He opined that appellant was malingering.
11-0379
10/17/2011
Obvious signs of symptom exaggeration.
11-1840
04/09/2012
Symptom magnification.
12-0123
06/12/2012
Malingering based on his normal orthopedic examination findings.
12-0458
09/13/2012
“Obvious signs of symptom exaggeration. Grossly exaggerated and in fact suggestive of a patient who is malingering.” 
12-1128
12/14/2012
Malingering for purposes of secondary gain.
12-0167
05/17/2012
Subjective complaints of pain grossly outweighed the objective medical findings.
13-0159
05/14/2013
Subjective complaints grossly outweighed her objective findings.
15-0836
07/24/2015
Subjective complaints grossly exaggerated for purposes of deceiving him
16-0095
05/20/2016
Malingering on either conscious or unconscious basis. Obvious signs of intentional efforts to deceive the examiner. Pain is psychogenic in origin.
15-1452
09/20/2016
Exhibited symptom magnification and exaggeration. Present subjective complaints of pain strongly indicated that she was intentionally malingering for the purposes of secondary gain
16-1084
10/21/2016
Obvious signs of symptom exaggeration.
16-1314
09/18/2017
He also opined that he believed appellant had symptom magnification in her subjective complaints.
17-1144
01/12/2018
Dr. Doman reported that her subjective complaints appeared exaggerated and out of proportion to the lack of objective findings.
17-1645
06/11/2018
Dr. Doman explained that it was clear that appellant was grossly exaggerating his complaints with extreme symptom magnification, clearly indicative of a patient that was malingering.

In none of the above cases did the Board indicate that Dr. Doman provided pervasive evidence as to how he arrived at his opinions of symptom magnification, symptom exaggeration and/or malingering.

Symptom magnification and/or symptom exaggeration are a psychiatric diagnosis. Dr. Doman does not explain how, as an orthopedist, he is qualified to make such a psychiatric diagnosis.

In addition, Dr. Doman often states the claimant has behavior that is psychogenic in nature. This indicates that each of these claimants he examines has a psychological condition. Yet Dr. Doman provides no referral to a psychologist/psychiatrist and provides no credentials that would qualify him to make such a diagnosis. 

Dr. Doman consistently suggests symptom magnification, exaggeration and/or malingering when bending the knees while in a prone position, yet I could not find a single case where Dr. Doman explained how flexing the knees while the claimant was in a prone position could not cause pain in the spine or how this one test result evidenced the claimant was exaggerating, malingering or attempting to deceive him.

In point of fact, there is no evidence based examination technique to determine a patient is malingering; there is no physical examination maneuver that can determine a patient’s external incentives. Yet Dr. Doman consistently uses this same examination maneuver to determine claimants are deceiving him, exaggerating their symptoms, magnifying their symptoms or malingering.

Dr. Doman simply makes serious offending allegations of symptom magnification, intentional deception, symptom exaggeration and malingering without providing the Office the medical rationale that formed his conclusions. Nor does Dr. Doman provide how he measured these alleged intentional fraudulent behaviors. Yet the Office accepts these offending allegations as fact without any factual proof often to the detriment of claimants.

Dr. Doman has a propensity to opine claimants falsify their symptoms, yet I could find no case where Dr. Doman provided a discussion of the objective evidence he relied on that forms his opinions.

I am providing the Office twenty seven (27) cases as cited above, including my own, wherein Dr. Doman indicated a claimant was exhibiting symptom exaggeration, symptom magnification, malingering or other unsubstantiated negative allegations in his reports while providing no medical rationale, evidence or criteria on how he arrived at these opinions. I would imagine the totality of his reports contain many more such allegations.

Dr. Doman consistently uses the same phrasing no matter the claimant’s examination, medical record, test results, etc…It is suspicious that Dr. Doman uses these similar terms and phrases on a regular basis. The consistency in which Dr. Doman uses these derogatory phrases can only lead one to believe Dr. Doman is biased against the claimants he examines for his own secondary gain.

In addition, I have learned that Dr. Doman, acting as the Office second opinion examiner has been paired with Dr. Harold H. Alexander acting as the Office referee examiner on at least five (5) separate occasions (docket number 08-2271P issued 08/06/2009, docket number 10-0878 issued 12/17/2010, docket number 11-0931 issued 11/09/2011 and docket number 13-0159 issued 05/14/2013, docket number 14-1676 issued 11/2014.

Dr. Doman, acting as the second opinion examiner has been paired with Dr. Charles Thomas Hopkins, Jr. acting as the Office referee examiner on at least five (5) separate occasions (docket number 10-0455 issued 09/15/2010, docket number 10-0981 12/09/2010, docket number 10-2372 issued 09/30/2011, docket number 11-1205 issued 02/24/2012 and docket number 13-1650 issued 02/10/2014).

As referee physicians are to be chosen on a random basis, it is highly suspicious that Dr. Doman has been paired with the same referee physicians on multiple occasions.

FECA Circular 00-08 (2007) states in part;

"Credible, reliable medical evidence is vital to the claims process and it is particularly important that OWCP-directed medical examinations are not compromised in any way. Where a complaint is received concerning a physician and/or challenging a medical report, the claims examiner should, [g]enerally, address the complaint in the context of the specific FECA case. The CE should first evaluate the charge and supporting evidence to determine how to proceed.”

"If OWCP receives a written complaint concerning a physician's professional conduct (which includes allegations concerning veracity, discrimination or bias) before or following an OWCP-directed medical examination, and that complaint is supported by credible evidence of the type detailed in the procedure manual, the CE may ask the DO manager or district medical director to help develop the evidence."

Dr. Doman is a less than reputable physician with a reputation of bias which is used by the Office to receive a guaranteed negative result against claimants. As his bias is obvious, the Office has a duty and obligation to immediately remove him from use. 

Respectfully submitted,


_____________________________
Insert your name
Insert your address

4 comments:

  1. The last quack I saw was in Long Beach. I had a year before another referee exam and he said that the injury was still extant. I go see the quack (Ghol Bahman Ha'Eri) and he sends a report to the DOL that I am cured, and can work 40 hours with minor restrictions. I looked him up previous to the exam and he had nothing but bad reviews. Most said he was there for the money and nothing else. When I got there, he had an assistant in the room writing down everything that was said. He said he did tests which he did not. I wrote to my CE the same day and said it was a sham exam. Nothing was done.
    The DOL then puts me in Vocational Rehab for an Office Management Class for 6 months. After that was 3 months of assistance with job hunting, resumes, etc.... I applied for 250 jobs during that time and got no responses. Soon after that the DOL notified me that they were cutting my benefits because I wasn't working full time. In addition, I had asked for a transfer to a new doctor in July, and did not get approved till late November. I saw the doctor the day before the deadline with DOL to prove I was still disabled. They did not wait for the report, they cut my benefits, including my health care. Now I am almost 64 yrs old without health care. I am applying for Covered CA and Medi-Cal. They offered COBRA but with a benefit check of 550 where was I going to come up with 2300 a quarter to pay for insurance?
    I have a law firm working on my schedule award and I am hoping that will be done before the end of summer. My injury was in 2003 and I am very sure they are trimming the branches of workers who were on the rolls for a long time. I had 3 surgeries and still have terrible pain in my shoulder.
    Thanks for the interesting info on your page.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jesse I have used your FOIA request example to request a copy of complaints the Office has received on SECOP doctor I was sent to. They claim they do not keep records of complaints. Any suggestions?

    ReplyDelete
  3. This might help lead you down the right path:
    https://www.dol.gov/OWCP/dfec/regs/compliance/DFECfolio/FECACirculars/index.htm#CIRCULAR0008

    ReplyDelete