Doc healed $elf – feds
DOCTORS TAKE an oath to “do no harm” — but authorities say one physician’s vow was “do no work.”
Michael Poyin Chang — a doctor with a part-time job performing physicals on FDNY members who responded to the 9/11 attacks — was paid more than $155,000 for about 300 days when he never provided a lick of treatment, authorities said Wednesday.
Chang was employed by the FDNY from June 2010 to December 2016. He primarily worked at the World Trade Center Monitoring Clinic in upstate Middletown, and another monitoring clinic at Fort Totten, Queens.
His duties included annual examinations of active and retired FDNY members, court papers said, and the clinics didn’t accept walk-in appointments.
But an audit of the days and hours Chang logged on his CityTime account revealed “significant discrepancies” with his prepared work schedules, Brooklyn federal prosecutors said.
For example, Chang put in for pay on 220 days when the FDNY work schedule didn’t list him as being on the job. The doctor also claimed he worked 81 days when he was scheduled to be on vacation and the Middletown clinic was closed.
Court papers added the audit can show Chang was traveling internationally on 34 of those 81 days at issue.
“Physicians take an oath to do no harm, but this Fire Department physician violated that code by collecting more than $150,000 in public funds for nearly a year’s worth of work he didn’t perform,” said city Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters.
The Paramus, N.J., resident was arrested Wednesday and released on $250,000 bond. His lawyer declined to comment on the charges.
He faces up to 10 years if convicted on charges of scheming to steal wages. THE VICTIMS WHO died in the years after the World Trade Center terror attacks are getting their own memorial on the hallowed lower Manhattan ground.
The conceptual design was unveiled Wednesday for the “Memorial Glade” — honoring the first responders who labored for months at the toxic