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70-year-old sentenced for impersonating a physician . . . again

Physician Practice Advisor, May 25, 2004

Gerald Barnbaum, a 70-year-old California man without a medical degree who has made a career of practicing medicine under the name Gerald Barnes, MD, was sentenced to 10 years in prison last week. This is Barnbaum's fifth conviction for impersonating a physician, according to the Associated Press.

Barnbaum pleaded guilty to impersonating Gerald Barnes, MD, of Stockton, CA, under whose name he worked at Family Medical Center clinics in Los Angeles for one month. Barnbaum told Family Medical Center that he had been most recently employed as a doctor in an Israeli-occupied territory. In fact, he had escaped federal custody during an unescorted transfer from one low-security prison to another. During his month at Family Medical Center, he examined patients, treated them, and wrote prescriptions.

Barnbaum's checkered past with fraudulently practicing medicine includes a 1981 guilty plea to the involuntary manslaughter of a diabetic woman he misdiagnosed. For his most current offense, Barnbaum was sentenced to an additional two and a half years for his escape and 10 years for his latest conviction. His sentences will expire in June 2019.

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