SHIRLEY PIGOTT MD

On September 29, 2007, I was stopped for speeding 74 mph, nine

mph over the limit, between El Campo and Wharton, on Hwy 59
North, at 8:15 PM, by Officer Alfred Ochoa. These are relevant
events leading up to that time.

If you are interested in helping me fight the corruption chronicled here, please
contact me at shirleypigottmd@gmail.com

Since 1997 I have been under the care of my private psychiatrist for bipolar disorder. I
have been compliant with my medications and, as a family physician, I have increasingly
begun to treat more and more complicated persons with psychiatric diagnoses successfully.
One of my three sons shares my diagnoses. We are both aggressive advocates for persons
with psychiatric "labels". That is why I am so open about my person experiences with
psychiatric conditions. Psychiatric patients can be treated successfully, can function
normally in most cases, should be respected, and should become advocates themselves.
The media, in particular, does a horrible disservice to society in the way it reports mental
illness.

The Texas Medical Board violates the Americans for Disabilities Act in the way it treats
physicians with temporary or permanent psychiatric conditions. Mari Robinson, Executive
Director of the Texas Medical Board, as of August, 2009, is the chief reason. Until her
criminal behavior is prosecuted, she is convicted, and imprisoned, physicians with
psychiatric disorders, physicians who treat psychiatric disorders, and their patients are in
peril. Join me in removing this corrupt individual from public disservice.

Although Robinson is an attorney, she regularly makes medical decisions, very bad ones,
with malicious intent. I have alleged to the Texas Medical Board that she is an imminent
danger to the public.

TIMELINE
~1997 Diagnosed with bipolar disorder when I sought help for depression; I reported it to
the TMB. The disorder never interfered with the care of my patients. On the contrary, it
made me more compassionate and more knowledgeable in the area of psychiatry, an area
of great need in my community and in Texas.

~2002-2003 Joined a "listserv" of the AAFP with hundreds of other family doctors around
the country.

~2003-2004 BCBS sent me letter "we notice that you code more complicated office visits
than your peers; BTW, we will look at this again when you're up for re-credentialing in six
months".

SP: You are trying to intimidate me to down-code, which, BTW, is illegal.

BCBS: Send us 10 charts.

SP: HIPAA violation

BCBS: Look at fine print of your contract. (Gave them permission to retrieve charts
whenever; patients had signed something similar)

Initially I refused to send them the charts; they terminated my contract; my office
employee smoothed things over; we obtained verbal permission from the patients and then
we sent the requested charts. They were reviewed by the TMAC - Drs. Curran, Miller, and
Merian, although I didn't know it at the time. The reviewer(s) wrote, falsely, "she does
unnecessary lab; her diagnoses aren't supported by the record; she takes more history than
she needs for the purpose of charging higher level office visits."

This insulted me because it was not true and obviously written by someone who was, at
best, a mediocre doctor and because I prided myself in practicing thorough, but economical,
medicine. My patients rarely went to the ER and I had fewer than three or four
hospitalizations a year. But BCBS did not consider these facts. I did spend more in all out-
patient categories than my peers, but usually kept my patients at home for their
treatments, avoiding costly procedures. My patients generally appreciated their good health
and cost savings.

On the AAFP listserv we learned that other insurance companies were sending the same
letter out in other parts of the country, usually to solo, vulnerable, primary care physicians
whose livelihoods depended largely on a single company. AAFP refused to help us.

Late 2003, early 2004, my long-standing fibromyalgia became so severe that a pain doctor
prescribed strong narcotics. I took them, however, only for a total of 24 days, 12 days for
each of two different types, but both caused me to have the same movement disorder. I
made a self-report to the medical board about taking, because I thought that a bipolar
doctor taking narcotics was a doctor the TMB needed to be aware of. They overreacted but
I cooperated.

The narcotics did not impair me, but I insisted on disclosing my treatment to every patient
who saw me while I was taking them. I disclosed it to my medical societies, pharmaceutical
reps, and colleagues.

TEXAS MEDICAL BOARD FIVE YEAR PRIVATE NON-DISCIPLINARY ORDER 2004

2004 They required me to have an expensive psychiatric evaluation at my own cost by
Randall Moore MD JD, a forensic psychiatrist. He did not believe I had bipolar disorder and
thought there must be more to the "story" than I was telling him. I had to see him every
six months and he was required to write the board every six months. The board kept the
reports from me, but Dr. Moore said they were fine. Dr. Moore knew about my fightings
with TMB as they escalated after March, 2006. I saw Dr. Moore regularly every six months
until September, 2007.

The TMB required me to visit my pain doctor every three months and have him submit a
letter to the board. Even after the trigger point of my fibromyalgia, a subcutaneous
granuloma, was surgically removed in April, 2006, and my fibromyalgia was cured, the TMB
required me to see him. We both told the TMB that I had no more pain and was not taking
anything for pain, and that the repeated evaluations and letters by the doctor were both
burdensome and unnecessary, but our communications were ignored. Finally, the pain
doctor dismissed me; we both notified the board. They held an "informal settlement
conference", which I did not attend, and they revised my order, removing the requirement
to see that doctor.

The TMB also required me to see my private psychiatrist every three months (which I was
already doing) and have him submit a letter to the board. They sent a "compliance officer"
to my office, about every three months, I believe.
END OF TMB ORDER
***
~2004-2005 A doc from Pennsylvania, a doc from Colorado, and I started a group to "do
something" about Ended up being 70 FPs from 27 states; we wrote three resolutions to
take to the AAFP from the state academies; we had thirteen doctors who passed the same
resolutions in thirteen different state academies. I believe all of us surprised our state
leadership on the spot. The 14th state worked with its leadership and did not pass the
resolutions
1. AAFP will advocate for us in our disagreements with insurance companies
2. AAFP coding policy will read: "It is unacceptable for insurance companies" not to pay
us for necessary work we do to take care of patients
3. AAFP will develop a clearinghouse for members' specific complaints about specific
insurance companies and make results available to all members.

In ~July, 2005, the TAFP Board of Directors passed the resolutions overwhelmingly and
voted to send them to the AAFP for adoption.

In ~September, 2005,The resolutions passed OVERWHELMINGLY, in the annual meeting in

Washington DC. We were elated.

The first time I ever saw Dr. Curran, he sat across the table from me in the committee
meeting when I presented the above resolutions. He was the only person in the room who
spoke against them, saying "It's not all about money, is it!" Another committee member
said that until he could afford to send his kids to college, it was "all about money". For the
rest of the meeting Dr. Curran looked as if he were displeased with me and the actions of
the committee in approving the resolutions.

In the ensuing months, it became commonly known within the TAFP that I was one of the
"ring-leaders" in getting these historical resolutions passed. The Executive Vice President of
the AAFP, Doug Henley MD, personally told me that doctors had tried to do this sort of thing
many times before but had never succeeded.

January, 2006

TAFP send out a request, presumably to all members, concerning proposed agenda for the
year. I responded with a list of areas of concern. Over the next few months I work with
several leaders within the TAFP and AAFP to write, rewrite, and clarify resolutions to be
presented to at the TAFP annual session ~ July, with expectation that they would be passed
through our academy, as before, and sent to the AAFP in order to change national policy.
Again, these resolutions would strengthen the negotiating positions of members in private
practice with insurance companies we contracted with.

~July, 2006 None of my carefully vetted resolutions got out of committee. I was purposely
humiliated in the committee meeting under, I later learned, the direction of Dr. Curran.

August 17, 2006 I received the attached 8 1/2 x 11 ad from a TAFP who had supported my
resolutions the previous year. It shows Doug Curran singing the praises of BCBS. This is a
testimonial ad and was a violation of the Texas Medical Practice Act (MPA). It also does not
represent the thoughts of private Texas family physicians, who generally report BCBS to be
one of the worst companies to contract with. Dr. Curran was participating in false,
misleading advertising on behalf of BCBS.
I contacted the Texas Medical Board and spoke to Attorney Robert Simpson about filing
about filing a complaint against Dr. Curran regarding his unethical conflict of interest.
Simpson, who is now the General Counsel, told me, without considering any evidence, that
what Dr. Curran had done was not a violation of the MPA. At the time, I was naive, and
believed him. Frustrated, I decided not to file the complaint.