Pubdate: Sat, 08 Dec 2001
Source: Indianapolis Star (IN)
Copyright: 2001 Indianapolis Newspapers Inc.
Contact:  http://www.starnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/210
Author: Tim Evans

STATE BOARD SUSPENDS PHYSICIAN'S LICENSE

An Indianapolis physician facing felony drug charges in Hendricks County 
said he believes he is being discriminated against by the state Medical 
Licensing Board, which has suspended his license.

"These people have in their hands your livelihood and reputation, and in a 
second, they can trash it," said Dr. Raphael K. Raphlah, 44, who denies 
charges he prescribed drugs when they weren't needed.

Raphlah's suspension came Thursday after an emergency hearing of the 
licensing board, said Lisa Hayes, executive director of the state Health 
Professions Bureau.

Raphlah said he will appeal the action and believes his civil rights have 
been violated.

Hayes said the board determined Raphlah poses a threat to the public 
safety. She said his mental fitness to practice medicine also was called 
into question at the hearing.

The seven-member board voted 6-0, with one abstention, to suspend Raphlah's 
license. The suspension is for 90 days.

The hearing was scheduled after Raphlah was charged Nov. 16 with two class 
B felonies in alleged bogus prescriptions he wrote in Hendricks County.

Raphlah bills himself as a pain specialist and worked out of several 
central Indiana clinics, including Care One Medical Clinic in Plainfield.

This isn't Raphlah's first run-in with the licensing board.

Disciplinary action is pending before the board for a shoplifting 
conviction. Raphlah claims he was falsely accused and convicted of that charge.

In September, the board denied a request to renew Raphlah's expired 
license, but he appealed and his license was valid until it was suspended 
Thursday.

He is free on $50,000 bond in the Hendricks County drug case.
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