Dr. Gustavo Carvalho, who most recently worked in Richmond, BC, was already disqualified for life from billing to the Medical Service Plan (MSP). He was the first doctor in the province to permanently withdraw from the public health insurance system. Now his registration with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC will be revoked in the New Year, with a lifetime ban from reapplying, after he admitted to violating several conditions placed on his practice due to previous disciplinary issues, according to an announcement on the college website. The release states that the college’s investigative committee was “concerned that Dr. Carvalho has continued to engage in unprofessional conduct, including professional misconduct, after decades of regulatory action against him and attempts at rehabilitation.” Carvalho has agreed to have his license revoked, according to the release. His current contact information could not be located. In total, the college’s notice and court records detail three decades of investigations, misconduct and discipline for Carvalho. His history with the college dates back to 1993, just three years into his medical career, when he was suspended and fined $20,000 for “disreputable conduct” for billing MSP for services he never provided. A judge who dismissed Carvalho’s appeal of those disciplinary measures you noted that “His dishonesty strikes at the root of the system and undermines the integrity of his profession.” Carvalho was he chided again in 2001 for failing to protect the privacy of patient records by disposing of their records in a recycling bin at his Vancouver clinic. His name was then are deleted from the college register in 2003 following criminal convictions for harassment and violating the terms of his sentence.
MSP charge for fake appointments
Carvalho returned to work in 2007 and soon caught the attention of the college once again. In 2012, he was again suspended and fined $50,000 for making improper claims to MSP. According a college news bulletin from that timereceived approximately $4,000 in public funds by billing 27 bogus patient appointments in 2009. He then received another reprimand and fine in 2016 for breaching his training conditions, and in 2018, suspended and fined once again for violating his terms of practice regarding record keeping and supervised work. Meanwhile, at the same time the college was monitoring Carvalho, the BC Medical Services Commission was monitoring his MSP billing. In 1999, he agreed to repay $48,404 he had wrongly billed to the public system between 1991 and 1997; according to a 2016 court order. Dr. Gustavo Carvalho has been penalized repeatedly for fraudulently and improperly billing the BC Medical Services Program. (Shutterstock) The commission audited Carvalho in 2014 and found improper billing in one-third of randomly selected services he billed for, the decision states. In more than half of those cases, the committee found no medical records to support the bills. A panel convened by the commission decided to revoke Carvalho’s lifetime MSP registration and ordered him to pay $184,138 plus interest on the false charges. He appealed the decision e.g. Supreme Court and then to Court of Appealbut failed to convince a judge at any level that his ban should be overturned. “These were not mere minor errors of judgment or the result of errors that might have arisen from a busy professional who did not pay attention to detail. … The admitted false charges were deliberate actions taken by Dr. Carvalho,” wrote Sheleigh Fitzpatrick, his judge. of BC Supreme Court in 2017. . The permanent revocation of Carvalho’s medical license comes after he violated certain covenants and conditions placed on his practice, according to this week’s notice from the college. The terms breached included: that he has no supervisory duties; that he works under an approved supervising physician; that he practices in a group setting with at least two other full-time physicians; that he has college-approved patient volume and clinical practice hours; that he has the college’s written approval before changing any aspects of the practice of him, and that his professional conduct must be “beyond every respect reprehensible.” The college’s statement says canceling Carvalho’s registration is “necessary to protect the public and to send a clear message of deterrence to the profession.”
