Ore. A.G. Reports Conviction of Doctor

Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers announced that Oregon physician Randall Jay Smith was convicted of the felony offense: Submitting False Claims for Health Care Payment.

Smith pled guilty and was sentenced by Multnomah County Circuit Judge Julie Franz to 18 months probation. As a condition of his sentence, Smith must serve 60 days in jail, perform 200 hours of community service, and pay $1,105 in fines. Smith’s former medical practice already paid almost $5,000 in reimbursement to the Medicaid-funded Oregon Health Plan (OHP) for questionable billings by Smith.

Smith, a doctor of osteopathy, was treating a patient for pelvic pain. Smith allegedly convinced the patient that massaging her pelvic “trigger points” would alleviate the pain.

During 2003, the patient repeatedly returned to Smith for “trigger point therapy”, which soon reportedly turned into sexual intercourse. The patient contends that Smith told her the sexual contact was part of the medical treatment, Smith claims he and the patient engaged in mutually voluntary sexual contact. But it is reportedly undisputed that Smith billed the OHP for 45-50 minute “treatment” sessions for the time he was engaging in sexual contact with the patient.

The case was referred to the Oregon Department of Justice Medicaid Fraud Unit (MFU) after prosecutors and MFU attorneys concurred that existing Oregon statutes did not provide a mechanism to prosecute Smith for a sex crime.

Prior to the criminal prosecution, Smith was relieved of his clinical practice and voluntarily surrendered his medical license to the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners.