Toronto Psychiatrist Jasjot "Tina" Chadda Suspended Six Months for Selling Patients Italy Meditation Retreats

May 27, 2019

She’ll have lots of time to meditate now.

A Toronto psychiatrist who overbilled her patients and sold them $5,000 meditation trips to Italy has lost her licence to practise medicine for six months.

Dr. Jasjot “Tina” Chadda wept during her disciplinary hearing before the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPSO) Friday where she admitted to professional misconduct and then stood stoically through a scathing reprimand.

“Dr. Chadda, the agreed statement of facts that has been presented to this panel is a deplorable indictment of a physician who has used the practise of medicine to develop a meditation retreat business, and self-promotion marketing all for your personal benefit,” said Pierre Giroux, the panel chair.

“In any physician/patient professional relationship there is a power imbalance and it is incumbent on the physician to maintain boundaries and avoid situations where any conflicts of interest may arise,” he said. “Clearly, you have chosen to ignore these guidelines in order to take advantage of your very vulnerable patients.”

In the agreed statement, Chadda admitted to charging four patients between $5295 and $5695 plus HST — that doesn’t include airfare — for her “Eat Breathe Think Heal Your Heart” retreat in 2014, which included yoga, hiking, mindfulness and meditation training in Italy.

She also urged “Patient A” to do a video testimonial to promote the trip for her website and offered to have her hair and makeup done. When she declined, Chadda kept bringing up the subject during their therapy sessions until the patient finally asked her to stop.

In 2015, Patient A complained to the College that she felt the psychiatrist “blurred boundaries” and left her unsure if she was her doctor or her friend.

Dr. Greg Chandler, tasked by the CPSO to review the complaint, found Chadda showed a lack of judgment and professionalism.

“When a physician makes an offer that involves finances, it introduces the possibility that a physician could be in conflict of interest between their role as a business person and their role as a physician,” he wrote.

“In this particular case, there is a foreseeable risk that (Patient A) could feel pressure to purchase Dr. Chadda’s product (the meditation retreat), with the worry that not doing so could lead to a change in the relationship, or even the termination of therapy.”

Added college lawyer Carolyn Silver, “She woefully failed in her responsibility to maintain those patient-physician boundaries.”

You’d think Chadda would have known better. She co-wrote a 1998 academic paper entitled, Boundary Transgressions in the Psychotherpeutic Framework, where “the authors emphasize the therapeutic value of establishing and maintaining boundaries between clinician and patient.”

In the agreed statement, Chadda also admitted to extra billing patients — Patient A had to pay an extra $65 on top of the $160 an hour the psychiatrist billed OHIP. Three other patients were out of pocket $75 an hour for their therapy sessions.

“You exhibited a lack of judgment and professionalism as a psychiatrist by charging an expensive supplemental fee on top of OHIP billing, failed to provide a receipt for fees paid, and failed to provide patient records in a timely fashion,” Giroux said in his reprimand.

Chadda has agreed to have her billing monitored for a year once she’s allowed to resume her practice. She must also take an ethics course and pay $6000 to cover the cost of the hearing.

The tough medicine must have necessitated a lot of deep breathing for a doctor who coaches others on managing stress: Chadda is the developer of a meditation app and author of The Heart That Heals Itself: Discovering Emotional Riches through Meditations & Reflections and Mindfulness in Italy. 

She also has her own website. But click on it now and all it says in bold letters is “Good Bye.”

Her six-month suspension begins June 15. We hear Italy is especially beautiful at that time of the year.

Source: “MANDEL: Toronto psychiatrist disciplined for overbilling, selling meditation retreats,” Toronto Sun, May 24, 2019. URL: https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/mandel-toronto-psychiatrist-disciplined-for-overbilling-selling-meditation-retreats