NC Legislature Was Just Granted Oversight Authority Over ALL Governmental Operations

Yes, that includes the tyrannical regimes of NCMB and NCPHP – and likely NC Medical Society, NCPHP's parent and NCMB's secret biz partner

Oct 21, 2023

Just as I was getting ready to update you about my public records requests for all formerly confidential privileged attorney-agency communication under the imminently expiring NC Public Records Law §132-1.1, another stunning info blast, this one from Kara Millonzi with the amazing UNC School of Government and its Coates’ Canons blog. It’s entitled

Legislative Commission Empowered to Examine, Evaluate, and Investigate Local Governments, Public Authorities, and Their Private Contracting Parties

It’s in that same mega bill I wrote about a few weeks ago with the NC budget and its radical constriction of the NC Public Records Law (buried deep on pp 530-531 - imagine!). But here, Ms. Millonzi reveals the bill ALSO had a radically innovative new development in it: NC has established a powerful, virtual mini-legislature that is tasked with overseeing ALL NC GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONING, especially its previously non-overseen agencies and their affiliated special interests. And it’s specifically empowered to root out corrupt dealing and these agencies’ federal and state law violations.

She writes: “The purpose of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations is now to ‘undertake the ongoing examination, evaluation, and investigation of State agencies, public authorities, units of local government, and non-State entities receiving public funds, and of their actual effectiveness in implementing public policy or providing public services....’”

“The scope of the Commission’s examination, evaluation, and investigation powers is expansive. The Commission, or a subcommittee of the Commission, may “study the efficiency, economy, and effectiveness” of any local unit and “evaluate the implementation of public policies” of the same. G.S. 120-75.1. It also may investigate “possible instances of misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, mismanagement, waste, abuse, or illegal conduct” by officers or employees of a local unit in the exercise of their public duties. It is hard to think of an action or function of a local government or public authority that the Commission could not examine, evaluate, or investigate…. (emphasis mine).

Now that’s utterly astounding!

Imagine if I wrote a column saying “Hey, I’ve got an idea. You know how North Carolina has some agencies (pssst – hint, hint – NC Medical Board and its PHP RICO) really need some serious oversight? How’s ‘bout this? They ought to set up a committee – no, they’ll need an entire mini-legislature – whose primary function is to conduct oversight of every agency, state instrumentality, specially contracted private party, and any other sort of string entity tied to the state of North Carolina and, in effect, be the compliance officer for the entire government. It’ll be a committee of, say, 42 members, and to ensure they keep each other in check, half’ll come from the House and half from the Senate.

You’d think I was crazy! (Well … there could be some truth to that. NCPHP and NCMB sure thought so, so convinced that I was a danger to society that they teamed up with the Federation of State Medical Boards to warn the world about my instability.)

But there it is. The NC legislature created this new wing of government! It’s like a state version of an anti-RICO strike force!

I’m really a bit incredulous as, encountering a veritable wall of pan-governmental non-responsiveness to my reports of abuse of my and thousands of other physicians’ rights in NC for over 14 years, I was fully expecting NC to eventually melt down and become indistinguishable from a 3rd world country run by tin-pot dictators. I have to admit, every hurricane season, I fantasize about a Cat 5 blowing right through certain office buildings in Raleigh.

But, damn, this new oversight commission is something to behold. Yes, 42 members! Half from the House, half from the Senate.

Now, admittedly, even bringing 42 people together just for a BBQ is tough enough. But, given the right structure, and the authority to investigate just about anything, and police power to slap agency non-cooperation with a criminal charge of a class 2 misdemeanor, and thoughtfully building in structures to ensure that it itself doesn’t become a corrupt politburo, this could really be something! I know, that’s a lot of ‘ifs.’ But the fact is, the JCOGO (not its official acronym) now exists.

Now … something tells me they’re not doing this entirely out of their own visionary desire for good governance. I have a gut sense that some federal agency storm winds have been ruffling the plantation shutters in Raleigh and threatening the state’s coffers with chunky fines if they didn’t immediately take ownership of their rabid, law-violating agencies.

Remember the NC Dental Board? They’re wearing implants that the state had to pay for.

Remember, it wasn’t too long ago (2016 in fact) that the FTC handed the NC Dental Board their knocked-out pearly white teeth and told them “you’re guilty of strong-arm anti-trust behavior, and worse, and you did it in the name of the state of North Carolina. Bad on you; bad on the State. (“We’re the NC Dental Board and we own everybody’s mouth; if you so much as go near one to do tooth whitening, we’ll have you arrested.”)

Now, when you don your shiny state badge and do something ridiculously bullying like that, it’s generally a good idea to make sure the state not only backs you but really backs you in the right way, like writing and signing a statement that says “We’re the State of North Carolina, and we back the NC Dental Board in its threats to bash your face in and to call the cops because we confirm they own your mouth. We’re a team; we’re in this together!” But no, NC Dental just relied on the whiff of power granted by dint of being written into the law as “the regulator of dentistry.” (Oooh, so impressive!) And then they had to go and get territorial about it and claim that everything that has to do with working in or near anybody’s oral cavity in any fashion - whitening, coloring, tattooing, mouth guards … you name it (of course I’m exaggerating a bit) - is OUR territory. We’re dentists, by gosh, and in North Carolina, we are all things teeth and mouth.

And so the entrepreneurial tooth-whitening kiosks that were offering lower cost whitening services, basically UV suntanning tooth-booths, were kinda miffed and said “That’s not fair, that anti-competitive” and got the FTC involved. (Remember, FTC covers trade practices; it fosters competition and enforces fair business practices so as to make sure that nobody gets too smartypants and tries to take over the market and drive up prices.) And FTC took their arrogant ~~ass~~ mouth to court, and NCDB lost, and then lost again in the 4th Circuit, and then, simply indignant at the affront, got the right writ to enter their presence of the Supremes and plead how unfair the FTC was and how they, after all, were the official, statutorily declared, ruler of dentistry for all of North Carolina. And they got their dentures handed to them.

The august justices said - So, you say you’re a state agency and that’s what gives you the right to burn down the kiosks and call the cops on your competitors? Well, whether you’re a state agency or not, we’ll leave for another day. We’ll let you be a state agency for this case. As a state agency, if you’re gonna play BMOC, there are certain rules you just have to follow. And if you had a decent lawyer on your board who knew one iota of anti-trust law, you would’ve known the two-prong MidCal test. You failed it. It’s gonna cost you big. And since you say the NC Gov is your daddy, maybe they’ll bail you out. But … guilty of antitrust, no question about it. You and your people can work out who coughs up the $$$ for lawyers and damages. See ya not too soon we hope, and don’t forget to floss.”

Now, how that got paid - that’s way beyond my research capability. My guess, the tax-payer. Or the patient, due to higher fees because maybe the NCDB had to raise license renewal rates? I dunno. But right after the country-wide board-quaking decision, FTC did issue very clear guidance to all occupational licensing boards in NC and the whole country – “Don’t want us in your mouth? Before you do something stupid like running competitors off with your guns a-blazin’, be sure you get your government to approve your asininity, in writing. No explicit approval – in writing – you’re toast.”

That was an important lesson that reverberated throughout the occupational licensing board world. And of course, it could have major $$$ implications for every state that is supposed to oversee its menacing canines who run occupational licensing boards and strut around the state like Nazi SS generals.

You would think that news like that would be rather bracing for all the other occupational licensing boards in NC.

But, as many know, NCMB’s life in a capsule of encased arrogance has probably reduced its awareness of the events of the external world. It’s been preoccupied with running – apparently profitably ! – a “preferred” referral operation with its long-term bud NCPHP who’s never turned down a referral they can send for a wallet extraction and a torture confession. And together they struck up a secret pact with the NC Medical Society that allowed NCPHP to do all their fitness for duty evals which they conveniently renamed ‘peer review,’ as that’s all the statute empowered them to do.1

Only problem with that is that it meets none of the criteria for peer review as established under the Health Care Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) that essentially invented and defined legitimate peer review. But with this group, when you live in a world divorced from reality, and you have utterly no oversight, and you really, really believe that you can make up meanings for words and you’ll be able to pull the wool over everybody’s eyes including the legislature’s and the courts’, and nobody’ll ever be the wiser for it …. But you let NCPHP pose to the auditor and legislature that they’re staying in their lane and doing their state-assigned peer-review gig, and you meanwhile let NCPHP pose themselves as a legitimate mental health entity bound by federal confidentiality laws that your licensees can trust, but then let them grossly violate that confidentiality while also depriving docs of their due process rights that should’ve been available whether NCPHP’s evaluation was a legitimate peer review or a legitimate psych exam (of which it was neither) ….

Well, eventually, all delusions and deceptions crack under the strain. And the lie got out, like got beyond the confines of the state border.

And my hunch is somebody somewhere in a position where they wear grown-up clothes and have agreed that laws are important and has the creds to show up and say “Excuse me, we’d like to talk with you about a few concerns; please come with us …” has actually shown up and screamed something to the effect of “HSWTF’s going on down there!?! Do you people know that there are federal laws you have to obey? That you can’t just magically declare yourself the ruler of all things medical and psych, and run your kangaroo courts and kangaroo rehabs and polygraph interrogation centers?”

Now, if that hunch is correct, then concurrently, the NC branch of the MR TRC enterprise, namely NCMB and its Dr. Mengele sidekick NCPHP, have been having their own “HSWTF’s happening, why aren’t we in control” moment. 2

And I’d imagine the introduction of the JCOGO doesn’t lessen that dismay.

I suspect that the NC Legislature realizes that they gave the petty tyrants way too much leeway, and now … they’re all in a heap of dung.

Admittedly, that may all be wishful thinking. But, lemme tell ya - I just re-read Kara Millonzi’s post in the richly informative Coates Canons blog, and lord-ee, it sure looks like they’re prepping to take some boys out to the shed.

So, we’ll let that mull for a while and, for sure, we’ll revisit it when it assembles and actually whacks its first mole.

But back at Manion Public Records Request Central.

With a bit of prompting, NCMB got back to me to let me know they got my 7-page or so itemized records request and that they’re “reviewing it.” (Why do I keep having visions of a shredder running continuously?) We’ll see. NC §132 has some other enforcement and penalty provisions that seem pretty clear – custodians must promptly produce the full record set requested or they may personally face legal consequences. No immunity. No hiding behind Pappa’s sovereign coat. It’s you baby, you’re on your own.

NC’s motto is “To be, rather than to seem.” After fourteen years of the illusion of justice and responsible governance, I’m a bit skeptical. But I’m ever hopeful.

NCPHP – The Infallible Official State-Sanctioned Peer Reviewer Diagnostic Psychiatric Rehabilitation Evaluator Intake Coordinator

But what about NCPHP’s records?

Now, this chameleon is a piece of work. They too initially didn’t get back to me, so I tried to contact their lawyer, at least the last one I’d had contact with last fall, but his email bounced and then that firm told me a) he’s no longer with them and b) they don’t represent NCPHP anymore (and didn’t know who did. Didn’t sound like a pleasant severance. FYI - they’ve been through about three or four firms over eight years.)

And then I get a fancy lawyagram from the newest firm telling me, yes they got my public records request forwarded to them by the CEO or Chair of the BoD, but no, dear boy, it doesn’t apply to them. At all. You see, they’re a non-profit corporation.

This is the state’s officially designated, first-of-its-kind corporation that was apparently awarded an honorary medical degree by the NC Legislature, formerly having been the state’s official peer reviewer that never conducted peer review but instead did invasive, ADA-impermissible psychiatric exams on gullible docs who were led by the medical board to believe it was a legitimate mental health entity, and which fabricated diagnoses and deprived due process (they wouldn’t even let you have their evaluation report) so as to send ensnared docs to their and NCMB’s “preferred” evaluation centers at about $10k a pop (polygraph $$ extra), and then lied to DHHS saying they never conduct psych exams. An organization that is written into state law as such (NCGS §90-21.22 and 21 NCAC 32K), and given infallible and incontestable diagnostic and treatment-ordering powers and can take bodily tissues from you on demand - skin, nails, urine, pubic hair (I’m serious!).

And their lawyer is saying they’re exempt from the law because … well, because… because we’re from the world of make-your-own reality because that’s the world our main salary payer NCMB lives in and it’s gotten them this far Scott-free.

So bud, want the records? Sue us. We’ll show you.

Every step of the way, it’s been a jaw-dropper. Fourteen years of this insanity.

So, we’ll see. With the Coates Canons post that just came out, it seems pretty clear that NCPHP is some unit of the state. And the new JCOGO will have the authority to investigate them. But what is the mechanism for getting that going? Oy. And whether they really intend to get down to business, or whether they’re just for show? Who knows!

But one thing is clear. If you’re a doc - anywhere in the US - and you getting pulled into any allegation that you’re impaired or unsafe to practice or performing suboptimally or being coerced to go for some sort of “assessment” - do yourself a gigantic favor. Stop the action. Agree to nothing. Drop everything and get knowledgeable guidance. Get trusted recommendations on a lawyer who’s familiar with the perilous territory and knows it’s unfair, and is willing to fight aggressively from the get-go.

And for those who’ve gotten ensnared, now’s the time to write a complaint to the DOJ about the unfair discriminatory treatment you’ve been subjected to at the hands of these predators.

Want more clarity on how ADA pertains to EVERY PHYSICIAN who’s alleged to be impaired? Check out this post. I’m VERY encouraged that DOJ attorneys, perhaps at the behest of the 3 US Senators demanding investigation of abuses of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by medical boards and PHPs across the country, have separately interviewed me and six colleagues about each of our rights abuses at the hands of these despots.

If you’d like my and co-facilitator Pamela Wible’s help in understanding these complex issues, and in guiding your attorney in the intricacies of how this malevolent system works and some ways to successfully confront it, and better yet, some help in really crafting your letter to DOJ and the three concerned senators so it describes the wrongs clearly and concisely and compels their action, join our weekly group, the PHP Fight Club. We are determined to end this abuse of physicians’ rights.

And so are the Senators and the DOJ!

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