Arizona's homeopathic board is the second chance for doctors who may not deserve one

Schmerler did not return phone calls requesting an interview for this story.

DR. RICK SHACKET

In 2003, Dr. Schmerler's partner in practice, Dr. Rick Shacket, shared the same page of an IRS press release, long before he shared the same office suite in Scottsdale. The press release detailed the felony convictions of both doctors.

Shacket secured his homeopathic license in 2001, before his conviction. The next year, he was sentenced to 33 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to creating a false identity so that he could hide $540,000 in profits, according to IRS documents.

A standard practice for nearly every medical board in the country, the California Osteopathic Board revoked Shacket's license. But Arizona's homeopathic board didn't. Shacket's Arizona license remained intact even while he was in prison and on probation. His profile on the Arizona Homeopathic Board Web site shows no discipline or letters of concern since his licensing in 2001.

In 2005, the osteopathic board also gave Schmerler an Arizona license.

Shacket did not return calls for comment.

DR. JEFFREY RUTGARD

In 1995, Dr. Jeffrey Rutgard, a San Diego ophthalmologist, was found guilty of talking senior patients into unnecessary eye surgeries, so he could pocket the Medicare payments. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison and ordered to pay $15 million to Medicare. The California Medical Board revoked his license during the 1994 trial.

Rutgard was out of prison by 2004. He promised the Arizona homeopathic board he would move to the state to learn alternative medicine. A chiropractor even testified that he'd take Rutgard under his wing to keep an eye on him.

Four years later, Rutgard apparently has yet to relocate to Arizona. The board hasn't penalized him, and Rutgard's license is intact. Despite his revoked California M.D. license, he practices part time in California with his Arizona M.D.h. and under the supervision of another homeopath, according to Homeopathic Board records.

California Medical Board spokeswoman Candace Cohen says Rutgard is breaking the law in that state if he is diagnosing patients or prescribing drugs, regardless of the Arizona license.

New Times could not confirm whether Rutgard has broken the law in California. He has paid his annual renewal fee of almost $1,000 for five years.

Rutgard did not return a message left on his home answering machine, requesting an interview.

Dr. Todd Rowe has served on Arizona's homeopathic board since 2005. He took over as president a month after state auditors released their report in the fall of 2007. Rowe, a psychiatrist, holds a valid Arizona M.D. license in addition to his homeopathic license.

Rowe says he and his board members are working to fix the problems outlined in the audit.

"I do feel like there's cleaning to do, and we have been working on that. We thought the auditors did an excellent job and really listened to the issues," he says.

But Rowe disagrees with the audit's statement that the homeopathic board may not serve a purpose. He and others in the alternative medicine community say Arizona holds the unique position of protecting alternative medicine.

As for the audit finding that licensed homeopaths aren't practicing homeopathic medicine, Rowe says the board wants to change its name to the board of "homeopathic and integrative medicine." That way the board can continue licensing alternative treatments outside the scope of homeopathy.

Rowe adds that the board is prepared to protect and regulate alternative medicine and that it's cracking down. "We've been tightening our discipline, at least since I've come onboard," he says. "All of our disciplinary actions have been at least if not more stringent than other boards."

He says the board is speeding up its investigations, too, by using volunteer homeopathic doctors to investigate complaints against their colleagues. Though that's a far cry from the professional, independent investigators the conventional medical board uses, it may be better than the recent system, in which board members investigated complaints themselves.

"We've made significant changes in the last year. There's a flow chart now that mandates we investigate every matter, at least since I've been president," Rowe says.

But three months ago, on January 9, the board failed to see an apparent violation of law right under its nose. Dr. Elliott Schmerler, the doctor banned from practicing cosmetic surgery in Nevada, stood before the board. It had been one year since the board voted to license Schmerler, a convicted felon.

The American Board of Cosmetic Surgeons had filed a board complaint that Schmerler was using their acronym, ABCS, on his business card and Web site — implying he's still board-certified, which he's not.

Schmerler showed the homeopathic board a new business card and said he had pulled the misleading acronym off his Web site. The board didn't discipline him, writing him a non-disciplinary letter of concern instead.

With that, Schmerler was off the hook.

The board had just been reminded, by the death of Dr. Gary Page's liposuction patient in July 2007, that it's illegal to use a homeopathic license for major cosmetic surgery in Arizona.

Still, none of the board members asked Schmerler why he's advertising as a cosmetic surgeon and M.D., when he isn't licensed as either in Arizona.