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Tuesday, October 27, 2009
UNM Doctor Denies Claim He Demanded Sex for Meds
By Olivier Uyttebrouck
Journal Staff Writer
A top University of New Mexico physician demanded sex from a woman in exchange for prescriptions for psychiatric drugs "that he knew she needed to function in society," the woman's attorney alleged in a letter to UNM.
Dr. Robert Katz, vice president for clinical affairs at the UNM Health Sciences Center, faces possible revocation of his medical license by the New Mexico Medical Board, which alleges Katz prescribed drugs for a woman with whom he was having a sexual relationship.
Katz faces a hearing Jan. 20 on those allegations before the medical board.
An attorney representing Katz said Monday that the physician had known the woman as a girlfriend for 20 years and that allegations that Katz had demanded sex in exchange for prescriptions are "inaccurate to the extreme."
The medical board notified Katz in May that investigators had evidence that would justify disciplinary action against him, which could include revoking his license. Katz reached an agreement with the board in August prohibiting him from diagnosing or treating patients while the case is pending.
This month, the woman's attorney, Lisa Vigil of Albuquerque, sent a tort claim notice, a letter to UNM's legal counsel, stating that she plans to file a lawsuit against UNM and Katz.
The letter reveals details of her allegations against Katz.
It alleges that the woman, identified only as "Patient No. 1," began receiving prescriptions from Katz in 1998 when she enrolled in a clinical trial for a drug used to treat bipolar disorder.
During and after the study, Katz offered to prescribe and manage her psychiatric medications, Vigil wrote. Katz continued writing the prescriptions through 2008, the letter said.
Throughout that decade, Katz demanded sex "in exchange for him signing prescriptions for Patient No. 1's psychiatric medications that he knew she needed to function in society," Vigil wrote.
The letter alleges that as a pediatrician, Katz "is not qualified or competent to treat adult psychiatric patients."
The Oct. 6 letter put the university on notice that the woman plans to file a lawsuit against UNM regents, UNM Health Sciences Center, the UNM School of Medicine, UNM Hospital and Katz.
Billy Sparks, spokesman for UNM Health Sciences Center, said the university cannot comment on pending litigation.
Peter Schoenburg, an attorney representing Katz before the New Mexico Medical Board, said the allegations that Katz had demanded sex from the woman "are inaccurate to the extreme." He would not elaborate.
Katz had known the woman long before 1998, Schoenburg said. "This was an on-again, off-again boyfriend-girlfriend relationship" that lasted some 20 years, he said.
Katz had prescribed "garden-variety or mild" psychotropic drugs for the woman, Schoenburg said. The drugs were appropriate for someone with depression or anxiety, he said.
Schoenburg also said that Katz now is enrolled in a residential treatment program in Kansas "for issues having to do with the medical board allegations." He declined to elaborate on the nature of the treatment program.
Dr. Paul Roth, UNM's executive vice president for health sciences, put Katz on paid administrative leave on Sept. 23, Sparks said. Katz gets an annual salary of about $321,000 a year.
Dr. Carolyn Voss, senior associate dean for clinical affairs, was named acting vice president for clinical affairs in Katz's place.
Katz, a former chairman of UNM's pediatrics department, was named vice president of clinical affairs in May 2006.
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