Rockville doctor owes $100K in child support, loses license

Many parents fail to pay child support because they believe the penalties are minor. Most of the time, they avoid jail because it’s useless to imprison someone instead of allowing that person to make money by working. However, the stakes are higher if someone has a professional license – such as a doctor – and the state revokes it. That was what recently happened to a Maryland doctor after he racked up more than $100,000 in delinquent payments.

The doctor’s ex-wife has tried unsuccessfully for nine years to get him to pay the massive child support bill. The state finally stepped in and took the drastic move to take away his license. The Rockville eye surgeon can no longer legally practice medicine in Maryland. However, that did not stop him from moving 6,000 miles away and opening a practice in Kuwait. Now that he is living in another country, it will likely be even harder for his ex-wife to track him down and force him to pay

Revoking a doctor’s medical license due to child support is only done as a last resort. In fact, this is one of only five cases ever recorded in Maryland. Child support agencies will typically try other tactics first, such as wage garnishment, withholding tax refunds and revoking driver’s licenses.

If a parent truly cannot afford to make monthly child support payments, that person can file a modification with the court. In this case, however, the man likely earns a decent living as a doctor and therefore should have made sure that his child support obligations were fulfilled. Raising a child is a costly expense and, as the child’s father, the man should have contributed financially to the child’s care.

Source: ABC 7, “Maryland doctor stripped of license after failing to pay child support,” Joce Sterman, Sept. 15, 2014