Valley health clinic under investigation

Inside a Spokane Valley clinic, a 76-year-old man fearlessly sticks out his finger to allow “Dr. Meagan” to draw a sample of his blood in a procedure that costs $125.

Wearing gloves and a white smock, she pricks Larry McCormick’s finger with a spring-loaded device, quickly transfers his blood droplets to a glass slide and slips it under a microscope.

Soon, McCormick’s red blood cells are dancing across a computer screen as Meagan Walsh conducts a “live cell analysis.”

“Don’t they look nice?” she says of the man’s blood cells.

She tells him he’s not drinking enough water and is mineral deficient, but looks “a whole lot better” than he did on his first visit. She also tells McCormick that he needs more of the vitamin-enzyme and anti-oxidant supplements she sells at her clinic.

“I’m happy with that news,” the retired businessman said as he left the clinic last week.

The patient apparently was unaware that the clinic, MicroMed Research, is under investigation for being an unlicensed blood laboratory by the Washington state Department of Health.

He also apparently doesn’t know that Walsh, who calls herself an “orthomolecular microbiologist” and a “certified microanalysis technician,” obtained doctoral and undergraduate degrees from Columbia State University – described by authorities as an unaccredited “diploma mill.”

Using bogus diplomas from Columbia State apparently violates a court order obtained by the Federal Trade Commission in the late 1990s when it shut down the operation, described by one expert as “one of the biggest and most insidious diploma mills the world has ever known.” Its founder, a former hypnotist who pulled in $16 million in a year, eventually was sent to prison.

Interviewed last week, Walsh said she believes her business is “completely legal” and offers people an alternative form of health care.

“I am not a medical test site,” she said, contending she doesn’t need state or federal approval to operate her business.

“I realize it’s controversial,” she said. “We are a research facility, working on developing technology.”

She acknowledged paying $3,000 for her online doctoral degree, which now is essentially worthless. Walsh said she believed Columbia State was properly accredited when she enrolled and quickly obtained her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.

It currently is not illegal in Washington to either use or sell bogus college degrees. An unrelated Spokane-based operation is one of the largest diploma mill operations in the United States, investigators say.

Some diploma mills, including the one operating in Spokane, claim they are accredited by the Ministry of Education in Liberia – a war-torn African country where government officials accept money for such “accreditation.”

Diploma mills or “virtual universities” frequently operate over the Internet, using photographs of famous mansions to project an image of their nonexistent campuses. Such unregulated, unaccredited operations sell degrees with few or no academic requirements, occasionally giving students credit for “life experiences.”

Walsh said she is now “starting over” by enrolling in a natural health program offered by Trinity College – identified by the FTC as another unaccredited diploma mill.

“I realize they’re not accredited, but they’re willing to work with me,” Walsh said of Trinity College.

She said she was “winded” after learning some time ago that her “doctoral degree” came from an unaccredited diploma mill. “I try not to dwell on that,” Walsh said. “I worked really hard and learned everything I needed to know.”

She said she took a satellite course and was paired with “professionals in the field” whose names she couldn’t immediately provide.

While Walsh’s degrees may not be genuine, it’s the state’s blood-lab laws that may shut down her “live cell analysis” business.

It appears that state health regulators are about to take formal action to shut down her Spokane Valley clinic, which has operated since September 2003 at 1014 N. Pines. Walsh operates a similar clinic in the Seattle area, which also is part of the state investigation.

She opened her business as a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization, Seeds of Grace, a Christian-based operation that she incorporated in Nevada.

Walsh couldn’t explain how a “live blood cell analysis” business is related to a Christian nonprofit organization. “The money we make is supposed to go back into research,” she said.

The tax-exempt organization’s annual report couldn’t be immediately obtained from the Internal Revenue Service.

A state health investigator turned up unannounced last week to examine the Spokane Valley facility, but Walsh said she’s never been told her business is violating state law.

“I’m not a medical doctor, and I don’t diagnose,” she said.

“I don’t treat, and I don’t make recommendations,” Walsh said, acknowledging that she did recommend enzyme-vitamins and anti-oxidants to McCormick.

“The code for what I do is observations without recommendations,” she said, adding, “You can talk to anybody who’s been here, they feel better.”

A federal law, enforced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says live blood cell analysis “is a test which is used for the purpose of providing information for the diagnosis, prevention or treatment of any disease . . .”

In 1997, the federal government determined that “any facility performing this procedure must be certified” by either the U.S. Department of Health or under even stricter guidelines imposed by some states, including Washington.

In Washington, the state’s Medical Test Site Law applies to any clinic involved in sampling human blood, said Gail Neuenschwander, a supervisor with the state health department’s Division of Quality Assurance in Seattle.

“At this point, all I can tell you is our investigation is still open,” Neuenschwander said of the department’s probe of MicroMed Research.

“Hopefully, we will have this completed within two or three weeks,” she said of the state investigation.

While her office investigates blood labs that aren’t legally certified, another Department of Health investigation is examining whether Walsh is involved in the unlicensed practice of health care.

“We have an open investigation at this time, but I can’t comment beyond that,” said Nick Lorentz, who investigates unlicensed health care providers for the state Department of Health.

The state agency reportedly has received at least two formal complaints about MicroMed Research since the operation opened up nine months ago.

Scott Lane, of Spokane, who was a business associate of Walsh’s, said he left in March after questioning business practices and Walsh’s self-described academic background.

“Now, I can’t say I’m shocked, but it is very embarrassing to me to have been associated with her,” Lane said Friday.

“Meagan Walsh is a very convincing person,” Lane said. “She said she had all these credentials, and I absolutely believed her.”

Lane helped with marketing for MicroMed. When he left, Lane said he was given a box of unopened bills from various creditors by Walsh’s daughter, Casey Justice Walsh, who works at the clinic.

“Many things just didn’t add up, and it seemed like I couldn’t get straight answers,” Lane said. “Looking back, her inability to give me straight answers about her degrees and accreditation now makes it clear to me what’s going on.”

Lane said he has been interviewed by state investigators and is “cooperating fully in their investigation.”

Walsh moved to Spokane from Winston-Salem, N.C., where she operated a similar clinic, called “MicroMed Sciences.” She used the name Margaret Meagan Smith when she registered that business with the North Carolina Secretary of State’s Office, public records show.

Walsh said she got interested in alternative medicine in 1989 when she became blind in one eye.

“I wanted to know what the medical community didn’t know, because I already knew what they knew,” she said. “I started investigating other options, and it led me to microbiology. I don’t really have a vision problem now.”

She and her former husband, Hugh Smith, moved to North Carolina in about 1989 and worked as Christian counselors after leaving a Four Square church in North Idaho where they both served as pastors.

“I’ve been everywhere,” Walsh said. “Now, I’m just trying to support myself.”