On Tuesday, Dr. Martinho detailed to a group of Washington, D.C.-based Georgetown University School of Medicine students the circumstances that led her to plead guilty to one count of accepting a bribe in 2014, a situation she said medical students aren’t extensively taught how to handle while in school.
According to Dr. Martinho, over several months in 2010, she received monthly $5,000 payments to refer patients to a biodiagnostic laboratory services firm in New Jersey for blood tests and other screenings. She said she knew that by taking the money she was avoiding tax laws, but she claims “she didn’t understand that the referral itself was considered a kickback,” according to the report. To date, a multiyear investigation into the laboratory company by the New Jersey attorney’s office has led to 43 convictions, 29 of them physicians. The firm has since gone out of business, according to the report.
Dr. Martinho said she faces possible jail time and the potential loss of her medical license when she is sentenced. The maximum penalty she can receive is a five-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine, according to the report. After taking an ethics training course, Dr. Martinho said she had the idea of “restorative justice” by speaking to future physicians and medical professionals to ensure they don’t make the same mistake she did.
“I want [medical students] to know, ‘Wow, this is how it happens,'” Dr. Martinho told The Washington Post. “Slowly it infiltrates into your practice and you [don’t] see it coming.”
Dr. Martinho said she has no deal with prosecutors at this time, but hopes her actions to prevent others from engaging in bribery will “make a difference in [her] overall future,” according to the report.
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