The Washington Department of Health’s Board of Naturopathy has charged a naturopathic physician in Bellevue with unprofessional conduct, three years after Steven P. MacPherson allegedly prescribed patients illegal hormone injections marketed and sold as part of a weight loss program.
MacPherson, who was charged with unprofessional conduct by the naturopathy board in March, allegedly acted as the consulting physician for Belle-Petite, a Bonney Lake weight loss product company, until operator Tanya Hunter was issued a cease and desist order by a health law judge in July 2012, according to a statement of charges.
MacPherson is alleged to have consulted patients through Skype — in violation of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — before prescribing injections of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). hCG is a hormone produced by a portion of the placenta in a woman’s uterus, and its sale as a diet product was declared fraudulent and illegal by the Food and Drug Administration in 2011.
The naturopathy board further alleges MacPherson failed to perform physical examinations for several patients prescribed hCG, document their preexisting conditions — some of which could have been exacerbated by the injections — or inform them of possible side effects from the treatment. The physician also didn’t disclose “hCG use has a minimal chance of helping with weight loss,” according to charges.
The naturopathy board alleges Hunter, who was never licensed to practice medicine, would be put in charge of a patient’s oversight once MacPherson prescribed the weight loss program.
