Doctor-turned-'healer' fights to keep MD Board of Physicians from

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Aug 31, 2005 by Caryn Tamber

A physician whose license was revoked and who now practices healing and counseling is claiming clerical privilege to prevent the Maryland Board of Physicians from seeing the names of his clients.

The board pulled the medical license of Binyamin Rothstein, a doctor of osteopathy, in May after years of disciplining him for using alternative therapies and not following accepted medical strictures. Rothstein is appealing the revocation.

In documents filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court, Rothstein claims he has been ordained to perform pastoral counseling and healing by laying on of hands and prayer. He seeks to quash three subpoenas duces tecum from the board demanding records from his healing practice.

He claims the board wants to figure out whether he is still practicing medicine.

Dr. Rothstein's pastoral clients have the reasonable expectation of confidentiality and they see him with the understanding that their consultations will be confidential, as well as explaining that he is no longer practicing medicine, reads the motion to quash, filed last week.

Non-standard

Rothstein included in his court papers a letter from his rabbi, Elchonon Lisbon of Baltimore's Congregation Ohel Levi Yitzchok Lubavitch, certifying that he is an ordained Reverend of Jewish Laws and Customs, entitled to all clerical privileges including total confidentiality with any client with whom he speaks, the rabbi wrote.

Lisbon did not respond to a phone message asking what that title means.

Baltimore Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, who helped found a Jewish health, wellness and healing program called Shleimut, said Rothstein's title is not a standard and, as far as I know, accepted title in the mainstream clergy of the Jewish community.

According to the board's order revoking his license, Rothstein was first charged with violating standards of care in 1995. According to the order, he failed to adequately diagnose or treat several patients, instead giving them inappropriate medicines and vitamins. In one case, he treated a man complaining of back pain with vitamins and minerals. The man was later found to have metastatic bone cancer.

Those charges were resolved in 1996 when Rothstein signed a consent order admitting his mistakes, accepting a short suspension and agreeing to attend retraining courses.

Then, in 1999, he was charged with failing to meet the terms of the consent order by not providing adequate care. He signed another consent order in 2000, admitting the second round of violations and agreeing to probation and several conditions, including halting his practice of alternative medicine.

Most recently, the board found he had violated the consent orders by continuing to use alternative therapies.

The Board has attempted to work with Dr. Rothstein for a decade, it wrote in its revocation order. After years of probation, peer reviews and supervision, Dr. Rothstein continues to practice substandard medicine.

The board wrote that Rothstein could not be re-educated and would endanger the public if allowed to keep practicing.

In a memo supporting his motion to quash, Rothstein's attorney, Alan Dumoff of Rockville, wrote that Rothstein now provides counseling, laying on of hands, and other healing and prayerful activities that are intended to create wholeness and health through a connection with God.

Names redacted

When the board subpoenaed Rothstein's client records, he provided them but redacted the names, according to the lawyer's memo.

Dumoff argues that the names should be protected by pastoral privilege, citing Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article Section 9- 111, which protects members of the clergy from testifying about remarks made to them in confidence by people seeking spiritual guidance.

The healing aspects of Jewish counseling are part and parcel of spiritual advice, and - any limitation of this wholeness would undercut the scope of the pastoral counseling to which Dr. Rothstein's clients are entitled, the memo reads. Dr. Rothstein's consultations fall squarely within the communications provided in confidence as part of his counseling.

Dumoff also argues that the board has no overriding interest in the names of Rothstein's clients because the names are irrelevant to determining whether he is practicing medicine. Rothstein took notes during his counseling sessions, and he will provide those to the board with the names edited out, Dumoff writes.

And, he claims, the board only has jurisdiction over medical records, not counseling records.

Rothstein also requests a declaratory judgment that he, as a Reverend of Jewish Law and Custom, may practice healing and counseling.

In addition, he seeks to quash a subpoena for his medical records for April and May of this year, prior to his license revocation. He claims the board wants to see whether he performed some of the healing procedures he does now while he was still a licensed physician.

Neither Dumoff nor the attorney handling Rothstein's case for the board responded to requests for comment.