Hoover v. The Agency for Health Care Administration
District Court of Appeal of Florida
676 So.2d 1380 (1996)
The Agency for Health Care Administration (plaintiff) charged internal medicine physician Hoover (defendant) with prescribing dangerous narcotic amounts and providing substandard care to seven patients, relying on two expert witnesses who lacked chronic pain expertise, had never examined Hoover's patients, and based their opinions solely on pharmacy printouts; Hoover countered with detailed testimony about each patient's condition and treatment, corroborated by her own expert. The hearing officer found the Agency failed to meet its burden on all charges and noted the only relevant federal guidelines concerned cancer-pain management, which didn't apply to Hoover's non-cancer patients; despite this, the Board of Medicine amended the hearing officer's findings on five patients based on the Agency's objections and imposed a reprimand, fine, continuing education, and probation on Hoover.
Whether a state medical board may decline to give substantial weight to a hearing officer's valid factual findings when that officer was in the best position to weigh the evidence and assess witness credibility.