Texas health agency pays the price for retaliation
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Dentists in Texas have won a battle in Austin, but they are waiting for the state to get the real message from a court decision.
The Texas health agency wanted to issue huge fines against a Houston-area company that helps dentists know their rights when state inspectors show up unannounced. Dentists who dared to suggest inspectors actually make appointments to look at their X-ray machines instead of interrupting surgeries have been punished too.
Two administrative judges said no, and their decision should stop this campaign of retaliation.
Bob Schaer of the company RSI doesn’t have to pay a penny of the $20,000 fine.
The judges noted in their decision that, “the documents cited by Staff fail to show that RSI caused or is otherwise legally responsible for refusal of inspections by the five registrants.”
This win for Bob Schaer should bring an end to the latest battle in a war being waged by the Department of State Health Services against RSI and doctors and dental offices all over Texas.
Want to see how stupid it’s become?
An Assistant Attorney General for the State of Texas compared Schaer to a getaway driver for a bank robbery or a girl urging her boyfriend to commit suicide.
We are not kidding.
Dolcefino Consulting has been investigating the surprise inspections carried out by the Radiation Control Program.
Dozens of dentists, chiropractors and doctors have complained to Texas lawmakers the new practice of inspectors showing up without an appointment is disruptive and potentially illegal.
There hasn’t been a single case of dental X-rays hurting anyone in recent history. Dentists are often forced to interrupt surgeries to deal with the surprise inspections.
Fines have risen dramatically, but our investigation showed the state hasn’t used a single penny of the money sent to a radiation control fund in more than two years.
“The state inspectors have been acting like dental X-ray machines are going to turn you into the Hulk, when they know you get more radiation in an airplane trip,” says Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting. “Texas lawmakers should actually be investigating whether it is time to downsize this bureaucracy and spend the money instead on something like education or flood control.”
You can find our investigative reports on this make-believe dental X-ray menace on dolcefino.com or on the Dolcefino Consulting Facebook page.
