Appeals Court Reverses Class Action Decision That Would Have Further Hurt Ongoing Physician Shortage, Says American Medical Association

International Medical Graduate Physician Shortage Class Action Lawsuit Overview: 

• Who: Monique Russell, Jasmine Riggins, Elsa M. Powell and Desire Evans filed a class action lawsuit against the Educational Commission For Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG).  
• Why: The plaintiffs alleges the ECFMG erroneously certified a man posing as an OB/GYN.
• Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in California federal court. 

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court decision that would have threatened to impede the medical community’s efforts to use International Medical Graduates (IMGs) to ease a physician shortage, according to the American Medical Association (AMA).

Several patients allege negligent infliction of emotional distress after being treated by an Educational Commission For Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG)-certified IMG who falsified a Social Security card and later lost his medical license and his ECFMG certification. The appellate court said the lower court erred in its decision certifying a class action and sent the case back to the lower court for further proceedings.

Among other things, “the court does not explicitly discuss whether the effect certification of the issue class will have on the effectiveness and fairness of resolution of remaining issues,” the appellate court said in its ruling. “If an issue-class jury finds that the [ECFMG] owed plaintiffs a legal duty that it subsequently breached, the commission may face undue pressure to settle, even if their breach did not cause plaintiff’s harm.”

The IMG’s former patients allege he used the name “John Charles Akoda” and passed himself off as an OB/GYN despite not being a doctor at all. They are suing the ECFMG because it certified the man posing as Akoda had graduated from medical school abroad. 

However, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the case should not move forward as a class action.

“Class certification in this case would … result in undesirable consequences both for Class Members and for the medical community,” the ruling stated. “Class Members who previously were unaware of their doctor’s misuse of a Social Security number would, under plaintiff’s theory of the case, suffer emotional distress upon learning about it through Class notice. This result alone should preclude class certification.”

In addition, the ruling said “allowing class certification would bring potential class liability to any entity that has a role in allowing IMGs—of which there are currently almost 223,000 in this country—to practice medicine, chilling the medical community’s efforts to provide access to care across America and, in particular, in patient communities of need.”

It further explained that the nation is facing a serious physician shortage of physicians and with 23% of all licensed physicians in the U.S. being IMGs, they are “a large and critical portion of the physician population in this country, the need for which is exacerbated by an aging population and presently a pandemic.”

Have you been treated by an International Medical Graduate Physician? Let us know in the comments! 

The International Medical Graduate Physician Shortage Coverage Class Action Lawsuit is Russell et al. v. Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, Case No. 2:18-cv-05629-JDW, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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