TIMELINE OF EVENTS
1991: Nearly three dozen improper billing claims made to the MSP.
1993: Found guilty of infamous conduct by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, suspended one month, fined $20,000.
1998: Audited by the Medical Services Commission and found to have billed improperly between the years 1991-1997.
2001: Found guilty by the college of unprofessional conduct for failing to protect patient confidentiality and maintain proper records. Issued a formal reprimand.
2003: Convicted of criminal harassment and breach of probation. Provincial court Judge C.J. Bruce called him devious and sentenced him to a year of house arrest and three years probation after a guilty plea. Carvalho appeared to have “severe personality disorders” along with anti-social conduct, the judge said. The college suspended him for a year.
2002 to 2007: Carvalho takes a break from medicine due to mentalhealth issues.
2007: College lets him practice again with restrictions, including monitoring, supervision and psychiatric treatment.
2009: Commission again looks into his billing practices, finds breaches. Carvalho voluntarily withdraws from medicine. 2011: Returned to medicine. 2012: More unprofessional conduct as he admits to submitting 27 false claims for patients he never saw or services he didn’t provide. He gets a three-month suspension, $50,000 fine.
2015: Weeks before a commission hearing, Carvalho writes that he knows he “cannot be trusted to bill the plan honestly because of my past behaviour.” He attributes this to mental-health issues. He admits to fraudulently billing. Carvalho misses the hearing on various days due to different problems: a car crash, and an overdose of anxiety medications that led to an involuntary admission to a hospital psychiatric unit. The panel continued in his absence. It would conclude he owed nearly $200,000: the value of overbillings discovered through spot audits.
2016: Carvalho gets work from private billings for medical/legal reports and forms but tells commission that such work is occasionally or rarely available.
2017: The college launches a new investigation once a court decision has been handed down. The college must decide what to do about Carvalho’s licence to practise medicine.