Dr. Alonzo Williams, a gastroenterologist and medical director of the Arkansas Diagnostic Center, at an Arkansas State Medical Board hearing into his practice in Little Rock on Aug. 8, 2024. (Photo by Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
A member of the Arkansas State Medical Board this week sued his former colleague, a gastroenterologist who lost his medical license after a prolonged board hearing last year.
Dr. Brian McGee filed a 22-page lawsuit against Dr. Alonzo Williams in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Jan. 14, alleging improper practices, fraudulent billing, sexual misconduct, racial discrimination and retaliation under the Arkansas Civil Rights Act.
Arkansas Medical Board revokes license of Little Rock gastroenterologist
Other defendants in the case include Suzette Siegler, a nurse manager who worked with Williams, and United Surgical Partners International, which acquired the company that provided management services to Arkansas Diagnostic Center, Covenant Physician Partners.
The lawsuit alleges Siegler defamed McGee’s practice by maliciously filing a false complaint against him with the state medical board in 2023. It also alleges negligence, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and retaliation under the Arkansas Civil Rights Act against Covenant Physician Partners.
McGee has asked the court for a jury trial for all claims triable by a jury.
McGee is one of 13 members of the Arkansas State Medical Board, a body responsible for granting medical licenses and receiving complaints about medical professionals, which can result in investigations and disciplinary action if the Medical Practices Act is violated.
McGee recused himself from a two-day hearing last year regarding Williams’ practice and allegations of sexual misconduct and improper opioid prescription. After testimony from a dozen witnesses in August, the board approved 16 of 17 charges against Williams, many of which were related to gross negligence or “ignorant malpractice” for the over-utilization of medical procedures.
The only charge the board didn’t approve was related to sexual misconduct, though an Advocate analysis of board complaints showed Williams had a 30-year history of such allegations.
The board revoked Williams’ license, and the Arkansas Diagnostic Center has since closed.
According to the lawsuit, McGee worked at the Arkansas Diagnostic Center from 2018 to 2023, invested $2.4 million into the Little Rock-based practice and intended to take over the practice when Williams, who was medical director, retired.
But while McGee’s experience at the workplace was initially positive, the lawsuit says, he later experienced a hostile work environment, witnessed an abuse of power from Williams and Siegler and a variety of improper medical practices.
In 2021, Williams and Siegler “began to schedule an excessive number of appointments, creating patient volume, traffic and care quality issues,” the lawsuit says. “Dr. Williams and Ms. [Siegler] were triple booking Dr. Williams’ appointments, and he often did not conduct an office visit with the patient himself, instead sending a medical assistant to talk with the patient.”
The lawsuit claims Williams prioritized profit over patient care and often scheduled “unnecessary” procedures so he could bill the patient, insurance provider or Medicaid.
The volume of patients that Williams — or an unqualified medical assistant — saw led to a prioritization of Williams’ patients, according to the lawsuit. McGee’s patients faced longer wait times, which was detrimental to his practice, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit notes McGee also noticed female medical assistants were required to perform physical-level medical care and were offered a $100 bonus if they scheduled a certain number of procedures within a specified timeframe. The lawsuit provides the example of 150 procedures in three days.
The medical assistants were allegedly not permitted to record overtime work, and the lawsuit also claims Black women employees were being paid less than their colleagues.
Case against Covenant
The lawsuit alleges that Covenant Physician Partners did not uphold its contractual and fiduciary duties to the Arkansas Diagnostic Center and its affiliated surgery centers, even after McGee reported his concerns about racial discrimination to leadership and a representative visited the medical facility in 2023.
“The Covenant representative spoke to several ADC employees but did not talk to Dr. McGee during her visit despite knowing that Dr. McGee possessed valuable information about the conduct of which the ADC employees were complaining,” according to the lawsuit.
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The alleged improper care, fraudulent billing and employee abuse continued after the representative’s visit, according to the lawsuit.
If Covenant was following its contractual obligations, the lawsuit claims officials would have recognized Williams was “in violation of the law and against the best interests of his patients and employees.” Company leadership would have also known if Black medical assistants were being unfairly compensated if Covenant was overseeing payroll, as contractually required, according to the lawsuit.
Other issues, like overbooking and a misrepresentation of how many patients Williams was seeing should have also been identified through the company’s required oversight, the lawsuit said.
Covenant, a chain of ambulatory surgery centers, was acquired last year by United Surgery Partners International, another chain of ASCs that in turn is owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp., a health care giant based in Dallas.
Sexual misconduct allegations
The lawsuit makes several claims that Williams engaged in improper sexual activity with medical assistants.
Women’s employment, bonuses and other assistance were based on their willingness to engage in sexual activity with him, the lawsuit says.
“Dr. Williams required female medical assistants to work without pay, perform sexual favors for him, practice medicine without proper qualifications, and work in a hostile work environment,” according to the lawsuit. “The female medical assistants were afraid to refuse Dr. Williams and lose their jobs.”
The lawsuit also claims that Siegler promoted and facilitated sexual misconduct.
Retaliation claims
According to the lawsuit, McGee was pressured to resign from his job in 2023 after his five-year contract was up for renewal.
Williams and Siegler allegedly bonded together and filed a false complaint against McGee to the Arkansas State Medical Board, stating that he created a hostile work environment and did not act in the best interests of his patients.
The medical board cleared McGee in October 2023, but as the complaint was still pending Williams informed McGee that his contract would not be renewed because of the complaint, according to the lawsuit.
A threat of a report to the National Practitioner Data Bank that Williams told McGee would be a “dark stain of a practitioner’s career” ultimately led to McGee’s resignation, the lawsuit states.
“As a result of Dr. Williams and Ms. Siegler’s retaliation against Dr. McGee for making complaints to Covenant about the mismanagement of ADC, Dr. McGee lost his current employment, his future plans to take over Dr. Williams’ practice at ADC when Dr. Williams retired, and his 2.4-million-dollar investment in the Surgery Center,” according to the lawsuit.
McGee is currently the medical director for a digestive care practice in west Little Rock.
Attempts to reach Williams on Thursday were unsuccessful.
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