What happened to my medical practice should have never happened in the first place. More importantly, in a free country, it should never be allowed to happen again to my business or any other.
In case you missed it, my ambulatory surgery center, which has successfully treated nearly 80,000 patients with a more than 98 percent patient satisfaction rate, was abruptly closed last year based on false allegations by employees of Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA). We were strung along for the next four months while we were forced to “negotiate” with the state in order to reopen.
Now that we have recovered from the immediate trauma of being shut down, we have filed a $500 million lawsuit against those responsible for this egregious act. I have chosen to do this not just in an effort to stand up for myself, my staff and my patients, but for the freedom and liberties that all of us should hold dear.
You can read all the details here.
Today, I’m writing in defense of business owners like me in Florida and across the country.
My goal is to sound the alarm about gross government overreach, and speak up not only for myself, but for other business owners who have or could be targeted by the government. We are fortunate to have withstood the government’s initial blow, but many small businesses could have easily found themselves bankrupt in a situation like ours.
I cannot in good conscience allow these actions to go unanswered and have made the deliberate decision to stand up for myself, other business owners, and the rights afforded to all of us by our great Constitution. Our civil rights were violated, and yours could be too.
This lawsuit is to protect the sanctity of the rule of law in the greatest county I have ever known.
Without consideration of any consequences of their actions, AHCA threatened the livelihoods of more than 100 of my employees, as well as their abilities to take care of their families. Their financial futures were immediately jeopardized during a time when Americans are already struggling to make ends meet.
My patients, who seek me out from all over the world and desperately need my care (in many cases after failed spine surgeries elsewhere) could not be treated.
The reputation of my business was nearly ruined.
In order to reopen and continue treating patients, I was forced to pay $50,000 to the state. It felt like a mob shakedown from a Hollywood film.
I am blessed that my business has survived, but many others wouldn’t have, and that’s why I’m fighting back.
I was not born in the United States, but in the country that is known internationally as a beacon of freedom, I never thought something like this could happen here.
Let me be clear: I love America. I would not want to live or practice medicine elsewhere. That’s why I’m so passionate about this issue.
The unwarranted shutdown of my ambulatory practice during March of last year is a part of a disconcerting trend of government overreach that has emerged over the past few years.
During the COVID pandemic, the government was given carte blanche authority to shutter small businesses. Those who refused to comply, like the gym owner in New Jersey, were charged criminally and fined sometimes massive sums. In many cases these business owners didn’t even break the law, but defied executive orders handed down by governors that were not voted upon by elected representatives of the victims of these shutdown policies.
Hundreds of thousands of small businesses never recovered from state shutdown policies.
Meanwhile, large businesses like Walmart, already largely immune from the financial impacts of a global pandemic, remained open.
I feel that as a society, we have not reflected upon this injustice very deeply: the government picked and chose which businesses could remain open. I’m asking you to pause here and really think about that.
Does that sound like something that should happen in a free country? Or does it sound like something that would happen in a country where the government controls the means of production, like Communist China?
We know from history that when governments grant themselves more power, they do not typically cede that power back to the people. Instead, they continue to grant themselves more and more power until freedom becomes a distant memory.
Thomas Paine’s clairvoyant writing in his work The American Crisis, published during the American Revolution, comes to mind.
“Tyranny, much like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph,” he wrote.
My business is owed the $500 million in damages for which I sued the state. I am anticipating a bitter battle, for which I am more than prepared.
While that $500 million cannot buy freedom, it might be able to slow the further erosion of freedom by sending a message to state officials: there will be consequences for violating the rights of the American people.
Any views or opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Tampa Free Press.
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