News Release — December 10, 2003

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December 10, 2003

Medical Board Investigation Results in Arrest of
Fremont Unlicensed Practitioner

SACRAMENTO—An investigation by the Medical Board of California lead to the arrest of Reena Chopra by the Alameda County District Attorney's Office. She was arrested on November 19, 2003 and charged with violating Business and Professions Code sections 2052 (two counts of felony unlicensed practice of medicine) and 2054 (two counts of misdemeanor false representation as a physician). She has posted bail and may still pose a threat to the East Indian community, to whom she confines her outreach.

The case was initiated after consumer complaints to the Medical Board that Chopra was falsely holding herself out as a licensed physician, and selling bogus alleged low-cost health insurance. She also allegedly sold drugs from India that were not FDA approved for dispensing in the U.S., with a 3,000 percent price markup. In one case she allegedly sent a patient for x-rays to a cooperating chiropractor. That information was shared by Medical Board investigators with the Board of Chiropractic Examiners.

The public is reminded not to seek medical diagnosis or treatment from an unlicensed person. To verify that someone is licensed as a physician by the State of California, please contact the Medical Board at (916) 263-2382, or visit the Board's Web site at www.medbd.ca.gov. To file a complaint with the Medical Board, please call its toll-free hotline at (800) 633-2322.

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The mission of the Medical Board is to protect healthcare consumers through the proper licensing and regulation of physicians and surgeons and certain allied healthcare professions and through the vigorous, objective enforcement of the Medical Practice Act.

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