A WARNING FOR MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS
You do not have to break a law to be convicted. Any physician can be charged — and whether it ends in acquittal, dismissal, or conviction, the damage is done.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Physicians are facing federal prosecution over decisions that can arise in the ordinary practice of medicine — a billing code, the use of a medical device, or travel arranged for a patient.
In some healthcare cases, prosecutors do not have to prove that a physician intended to commit a crime. The government may calculate an alleged financial loss based on its own estimates — and that number can dramatically increase the potential sentence.
A disputed medical or business decision can become a federal case capable of destroying a physician's career, reputation, and family.
WHAT WE'RE DOING ABOUT IT
The Justice Restoration Foundation documents these cases and brings the facts into public view.
We fund research examining what these prosecutions cost patients, medical practices, communities, and taxpayers. We also advocate for a meaningful legal safeguard: when a physician defeats a baseless federal prosecution, that physician should be able to recover the legal fees required to prove their innocence.
Accountability should apply to the government, too.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
These stories will not change the law if they remain hidden.
Your contribution funds physician interviews, documentary films, case research, public education, and the work required to put this issue in front of lawmakers and the American public.
If just one out of every 100 physicians stands with us, we can build a movement powerful enough to demand change.
DONATECASE STUDIES
The Foundation takes no position on guilt or innocence in any individual case; these are documented to show how the process works.
Dr. Sanjeev Kumar trained at the Mayo Clinic and became one of the country's leading pelvic cancer surgeons. When allegations surfaced, Tennessee's own medical board reviewed them and dismissed every one. Federal prosecutors charged him anyway. He is facing twenty years — and the patients who needed him are looking for another surgeon.
Elizabeth Hernandez is a nurse practitioner in Miami, a mother of five, with no prior record. She found a discrepancy in her own billing. She reported it to Medicare herself and asked them to flag her account. Prosecutors charged her anyway. She is serving twenty years, hundreds of miles from her children.
Dr. Ron Elfenbein is a Johns Hopkins-trained emergency physician whose Maryland clinics tested and treated more than 200,000 patients during the pandemic. He was convicted over how those visits were billed — until the trial judge vacated it. The evidence wasn't there. The government appealed the acquittal and he is still facing a new trial.
“When healing becomes a crime, we all become victims.”
MUHAMAD ALY RIFAI, MD, DFAPA — AUTHOR, THE DOCTOR NOT GUILTY
Restoring Justice & Rebuilding Lives. We Need Your Help. Donate Today.
Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Foundation works at the system level on federal criminal procedure. We do not provide individual legal representation, case referrals, or clemency assistance.
