‘Complete disregard’: Patient lost disability benefits because of doctor’s failure to complete forms

An Ontario doctor who caused a patient to lose her disability benefits has been suspended for 12 months and ordered to pay $6,000 in investigation and hearing costs.Dr. Mei Lump-Mee Hwang, a Toronto family physician, was found guilty by the Ontario Physician and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal—the disciplinary arm for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario—of failing to provide the necessary medical information for her patient’s disability insurance application. This resulted in the denial or termination of the patient’s benefits.“This same patient had to wait hours to see you for appointments, including one instance where you kept them waiting for over six hours, and you missed other appointments,” the tribunal reprimanded Dr. Hwang. “You demonstrated a complete disregard for a long-standing patient who needed you to complete the medical portion of critical documents in order to receive disability benefits.”Read: 'Does not reflect well on you': Doctor charged a fee to fill out accessible parking permit forms—even for patients who were ineligibleThis was not Dr. Hwang’s first encounter with the college. In 2011, the CPSO cautioned her on her approach to assessing, diagnosing and treating a child’s ear infection. In that caution, the college underlined the “importance of prompt referrals, especially for children with chronic conditions.”Dr. Hwang received further cautions in 2017 and 2022, in relation to her failure to respond to requests for medical records and for not cooperating with college investigators in a timely manner. When she finally provided the requests records, they were incomplete.In its reprimand, the tribunal also pointed out that Dr. Hwang failed to respond promptly to a January 2022 order for her to receive a caution in person. This caused a scheduling delay of "many months."Read: Fed up with fed forms? Let a central office take care of them, says CFPCDr. Hwang subsequently signed an undertaking to complete professional education that included medical recordkeeping and individualized instruction in professionalism. But Dr. Hwang “took no action to comply with the undertaking until referred to the tribunal,” wrote the tribunal in its reprimand.“Your repeated disgraceful, dishonorable, and unprofessional conduct has led to the severity of today's penalty,” the tribunal told Dr. Hwang. “We trust that the penalty that has been imposed including a significant suspension will help ensure that you conduct yourself in the manner required by the public, your patients and the profession.Read: AI and the primary care crisis: Not the solution but part of the solution

‘Complete disregard’: Patient lost disability benefits because of doctor’s failure to complete forms

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