IRVINE : Doctor Accused in Thyroid Drug Scam

The Medical Board of California has accused an Irvine doctor of prescribing a thyroid drug to patients who did not need it.

The physician, Dr. Marshall K. Grossman, also was accused of repeatedly referring patients to Irvine Clinical Scientific Laboratory Inc. for unnecessary tests and failing to disclose to those patients in writing that “he had a beneficial interest in the lab.” According to the board, Grossman is a director of the lab.

Grossman, an internal medicine specialist who practices at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana and Health Care Medical Center of Tustin, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

A state official said a hearing on the charges probably would not occur for four to six months. Under state law, if an administrative law judge finds Grossman guilty, the Medical Board could revoke his license to practice medicine, suspend him from practice for a year or place him on probation.

According to the Medical Board accusation, Grossman made “excessive use of diagnostic procedures” and ordered unneeded lab tests that could cost a patient more than $300.

Two of the board’s female undercover investigators and three other complainants had normal thyroid function when they visited Grossman from November, 1985, to July, 1987, the complaint said.

But, the complaint continued, the internist allegedly ordered the women to undergo a series of costly laboratory tests, diagnosed them as suffering from “hypothyroidism,” and then prescribed a thyroid drug.

In one instance, the unneeded medication made a patient so “weak and wobbly” that she was “unable to walk up a flight of stairs,” the complaint said. That patient also suffered from “extreme mood swings, insomnia and rapid heartbeat,” it added.

According to a state investigator, Grossman’s lab allegedly set its scale for measuring normal thyroid function at an unusually high level so that people with normal function often failed it.

A 1975 graduate of St. Louis University medical school, Grossman has been licensed to practice medicine in California since 1976.