BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The Idaho Board of Medicine has reinstated the license of a Boise psychiatrist who had been found by the state supreme court to have had improper sexual contact with former patients.
Dr. Richard Pines had his license stripped in 2013 but can practice medicine again under stipulations, The Idaho Statesman reported (https://bit.ly/2qJmqHM ) Thursday.
Among the conditions is that Pines will dismiss his pending court appeal. He will also not be allowed to treat patients under the age of 18 for five years, and then must do so with a third party present.
Pines cannot have sexual contact with current patients or with former patients unless it has been at least five years since he treated them.
He also will pay the board $18,876 to reimburse its costs and attorney fees, among other conditions.
Pines had been accused of inappropriate conduct in 2012 with a former psychiatric patient as well as former foster and respite-care children.
He had also been accused of prescribing drugs to a woman he had a sexual relationship with.
The board accused Pines of telling the patients he needed to practice massages on them to renew his doctor’s license. The board said he took naked photos of a teen at his Garden Valley cabin and gave the teen money.
Pines denied any wrongdoing and fought the board’s decision all the way to the Idaho Supreme Court. That court ruled in 2015 that he broke state law by having improper sexual contact with two former patients - but the other two young men were not actually his patients, as the board had argued. The court also scolded the board for its approach to Pines’ discipline.
Pines had been evaluated at an addiction treatment center in Texas. The center recommended inpatient treatment, and Pines spent about seven weeks at a center called The Meadows. He also agreed to complete a “boundaries course” at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
The Board’s Executive Director Anne Lawler said the board decided Pines had fulfilled the requirements to have his license reinstated.
“In each case, it’s completely fact-dependent” whether a doctor can be allowed to return to practice, she said.
Pines could not be reached for comment.
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Information from: Idaho Statesman, https://www.idahostatesman.com
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