STATE BOARD SUSPENDS PHYSICIAN'S LICENSE

An Indianapolis physician facing felony drug charges in Hendricks County
said he believes he is being discriminated against by the state Medical
Licensing Board, which has suspended his license.

"These people have in their hands your livelihood and reputation, and in a
second, they can trash it," said Dr. Raphael K. Raphlah, 44, who denies
charges he prescribed drugs when they weren't needed.

Raphlah's suspension came Thursday after an emergency hearing of the
licensing board, said Lisa Hayes, executive director of the state Health
Professions Bureau.

Raphlah said he will appeal the action and believes his civil rights have
been violated.

Hayes said the board determined Raphlah poses a threat to the public
safety. She said his mental fitness to practice medicine also was called
into question at the hearing.

The seven-member board voted 6-0, with one abstention, to suspend Raphlah's
license. The suspension is for 90 days.

The hearing was scheduled after Raphlah was charged Nov. 16 with two class
B felonies in alleged bogus prescriptions he wrote in Hendricks County.

Raphlah bills himself as a pain specialist and worked out of several
central Indiana clinics, including Care One Medical Clinic in Plainfield.

This isn't Raphlah's first run-in with the licensing board.

Disciplinary action is pending before the board for a shoplifting
conviction. Raphlah claims he was falsely accused and convicted of that charge.

In September, the board denied a request to renew Raphlah's expired
license, but he appealed and his license was valid until it was suspended
Thursday.

He is free on $50,000 bond in the Hendricks County drug case.