Umpqua Health and Dr. James Hoyne's Unprofessional Conduct

Here is my letter of to Dr. Layne Jorgensen, Chief Clinical Officer of Umpqua Health - Newton Creek, that I sent on Nov. 20th, 2020 to their 3031 NE Stephens St, Roseburg, OR address.

Re:  Unprofessional Conduct of Dr. James Hoyne

I am writing to you today regarding the unprofessional conduct reported by a mutual patient that Dr. Hoye saw and questioned extensively regarding my medical practices.  Instead of focusing his attention on the patient's healthcare concerns, as any good practitioner would do, he reportedly spent more than half the visit grilling the patient on how I operate my medical practice.

I waited until I was able to review the medical records of that visit, which of course do not mention any such questions, just as I suspected they wouldn't.  They clearly also document a physical examination that the patient denies ever happened.  I would not have expected one to be documented during this COVID distancing time, since most clinicians are hardly even seeing patients in person.

Specific issues that the patient says Dr. Hoyne questioned were regarding length of visits, prices, whether I filled their prescriptions in-house, and more.

If Dr. Hoyne, or you, or any of your other providers wants to know how my practice operates, they should be talking directly to me or my office staff.  Quit wasting patient time and billing insurances for your disingenuous actions.  I would normally file this complaint to the Oregon Medical Board, but I know that they will do nothing since it is basically a dispute between two parties and there is no evidence to prove either side's statements.

That being said, I will begin to inform my patients that are seeing Dr. Hoyne that they should consider recording their visits and/or bringing witnesses into the exam room in case anything like this occurs in the future.  Then formal complaints could be filed with the board and with their insurance companies.  Civil litigation may also be considered if I find evidence of any type of defamation in his statements.

When your clinic sees patients without first getting medical records, misleading them to think that you might prescribe for their chronic pain or other issues, it shows that you are only concerned about getting that big first visit insurance fee.  You deny patients care until you get records, yet you don't always get them.  You know that you are not going to prescribe and just "lie" to them.  You do that to Oregon Health Plan patients all the time.  Hopefully Umpqua Health Alliance will soon be forced to cover chronic pain medications that they have been denying since the summer of 2013.

Considering that I have seen your clinic's providers failing to do pain agreements, material risk notcies, check the OR PDMP, drug test, properly read drug test results, do confirmation testing before dismissing patients, and more -- all as advised by the Oregon Medical Board, the CDC and multiple other agencies, I find it deplorable that Dr. Hoyne is "investigating" my practice when his own practice is questionable.  He is guilty of the above for the few patients that he treats for chronic pain.  Given that he is refusing to treat some patients for chronic pain, I will start encouraging those patients to file complaints to the OMB for failure to treat or failure to do any of the above if he dismisses them.

I have attached a copy of a letter that I send to some offices interested in referring patients to my office for chronic pai management care.  I have the most extensive pre-acceptance review process of any office in Douglas County.  I have the most extensive Controlled Substance Medication Agreement of any office in Oregon.

I will await your response to this letter for 14 days.  I doubt you will even bother to respond given what I have heard about your and your practices too.  If I hear further reports or find documentation lacking from any of your providers, I will definitely encourage those patients to file complaints with any and all appropriate agencies.

Sincerely,

Dr. Darryl George

No response has ever been received from Dr. Jorgensen, Dr. Hoyne or Umpqua Health.