news and stuff: Notice of Public Interest Exclusion (PIE)

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Signed today and posted on the Department of Transportation’s web page for Public Interest Exclusions (PIE) is: Elizabeth “Betsy” Pope d/b/a Eastgate Laboratory Testing Public Interest Exclusion Order http://www.transportation.gov/odapc/pie.

This list serve and the web page link announce that the Department of Transportation issued a PIE decision and order under the Procedures for Transportation Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs excluding DOT-regulated employers and their service agents from using the drug and/or alcohol testing services of service agent, Elizabeth “Betsy” Pope d/b/a Eastgate Laboratory Testing in Tennessee and all other places that it is doing business.

The duration of this PIE is 5 years. This is the maximum sanction permitted under Part 40.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration brought this PIE action based upon a criminal conviction that resulted from the Medical Review Officer (MRO) services Ms. Pope was providing to a DOT-regulated trucking company through her company, Eastgate Laboratory Testing. Ms. Pope was not a licensed physician (a Doctor of Medicine or Osteopathy), and therefore not qualified to act as an MRO.

The Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General conducted a criminal investigation that revealed that Elizabeth “Betsy” Pope d/b/a Eastgate Testing Laboratory, served as a third-party administrator to oversee FMCSA drug testing for a trucking company. In that capacity, Ms. Pope wrongfully used the signature of an MRO to certify results, while the MRO had not worked for the company since June 2005. Specifically, the NOPE cited a guilty plea that Ms. Pope entered in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the resulting “conviction for mail fraud relating to [Ms. Pope’s] forgery of a medical review officer’s signature on commercial motor vehicle operator drug tests.”

In accordance with the terms of the Department’s Decision and Order and per 49 CFR § 40.403(a), Elizabeth “Betsy” Pope d/b/a Eastgate Laboratory Testing, has been required to directly notify each of the affected DOT-regulated employer clients in writing about the issuance, scope, duration, and effect of the PIE. In addition, the Department has notified employers and the public about this PIE by publishing a “List of Excluded Drug and Alcohol Service Agents” on its website at: http://www.transportation.gov/odapc/pie.

As required by 49 CFR § 40.401(d), the Department will publish a Federal Register notice to inform the public that Elizabeth “Betsy” Pope d/b/a Eastgate Laboratory Testing is subject to a PIE for 5 years. After August 18, 2020, Elizabeth “Betsy” Pope d/b/a Eastgate Laboratory Testing will be removed from the list and the public will be notified of that removal, also in accordance with 49 CFR § 40.401(d).