FMCSA to void truckers’ exams by indicted medical examiner

Last month, a once-certified medical examiner was arrested and indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to falsifying the results of Department of Transportation physicals.

Now, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says it intends to revoke all medical certificates issued by Dr. Kenneth G. Edwards to commercial motor vehicle operators in the past two years.

FMCSA plans to obtain contact information for all affected drivers from state driver licensing agencies. When it contacts the affected drivers, FMCSA plans to tell the drivers they have 30 days to obtain a medical examiner’s certificate from a medical examiner with valid certification on the National Registry.

Drivers and carriers with questions should contact FMCSA via email at FMCSAMedical@dot.gov or by calling 202-366-4001.

Edwards, 64, was arrested Feb. 21. He faces charges involving conspiracy, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, making false statements and falsification of federal records.

His employees Joann Bush, 58, and Andrea Daigle, 40, also were indicted.

The indictment alleges that Edwards and his employees orchestrated a scheme to submit false documents to the DOT.

The false documents related to the physical exams of truck drivers that were conducted at his chiropractic office in Phenix City, Ala.

According to the indictment, Edwards and his staff did not perform physicals up to DOT standards but still sent forms to the DOT that “falsely certified the truck drivers had passed all of the DOT physical exam requirements.”

Each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The case was investigated by the DOT’s Office of Inspector General with assistance from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

FMCSA removed Edwards from the National Registry on Dec. 5.

Meanwhile, the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners remained “under construction” as of the afternoon of March 23, 2018.

The agency’s website went down after a security breach on Dec. 1. The website was briefly functional on Dec. 14, but the site stopped working again on the afternoon of Dec. 15. It hasn’t been operational since.

OOIDA’s Rate My Doc website is another resource drivers can use to find a certified physician to provide them with a DOT physical.

Previous related coverage:
Chiropractor indicted for falsifying results of DOT physicals
How to find a CME while the national registry site is down
National Registry website outage approaches three-month mark
FMCSA says email to CMEs about expired credentials was an error
Website outage leads to estimated backlog of 500,000 DOT exams
Few answers provided regarding ‘hack’ into FMCSA registry website