Illness Embraces Opportunity

Dr. Noah received his wake up call on the early morning of September 21, 1989. The otherwise healthy thirty-three year old physician was admitted to the hospital short of breath and in acute congestive heart failure. Modern cardiology had little to offer for viral cardiomyopathy, and he was discharged two days later to bed rest with round the clock oxygen therapy.

Dr. Noah’s desperate search for a cure led him to many first hand encounters with un-orthodox practitioners. He took exotic herbs, practiced Yoga, prayed, meditated and performed his Qi Gong exercises daily. Most importantly he unlocked the mysteries of Quantum physics, which gave him hope, and offered the possibility for a definitive cure. The journey was long and intense, but in the end he combined the best of conventional and alternative medicine with the formulas and theories of Quantum science to heal his ‘broken heart’. He returned to his practice in six months.

Dr. Noah’s personal quantum healing transformations came in four stages. The word ‘quantum’ here implies instantaneous packets of energy and physiologic transformation. The four quantum events that shook his long-held beliefs about healing and helped heal his heart were in the order of occurrence, the breath of Fire, his 30-day fast, his stint in Federal prison, and recovery from open-heart surgery.

Convinced that the quantum interactions of a patient’s mind and body are far more competent than the best of modern medicine, he set out to introduce these healing principles into his practice.

Patients Embrace Integrated Health Care

In 1990 after returning to his practice, Dr. Noah began introducing the most amazing assortment of ‘nameless’ but effective self-care healing techniques he had used on himself, to his patients, colleagues and staff. Positive patient response encouraged him to undertake a rapid incorporation of many of the techniques into the practice. Over the next six years, under his leadership as the new CEO and Chairman of General Medical Clinics and WellNet LLC, he expanded healthcare coverage to a base of 30,000 active patients at twelve clinic locations through out the Puget Sound of Seattle, Washington.

Annual revenue for the General Medical Clinics in 1996 was $5 million. The outpatient medical centers managed 92,000 patient visit annually, were open seven days a week and provided the widest spectrum of care—from urgent care, internal medicine, family practice, pediatrics, gynecology and orthopedics to acupuncture, biofeedback, nutrition, massage, yoga, physical therapy, podiatry, hypnotherapy and naturopathy.

The first of its kind in Washington State, and perhaps the country, Dr. Noah’s ‘integral’ multi-specialty approach to care became popular with the public and regional employers. The integrated approach employed over thirty practitioners across all disciplines and provided a balance between conventional healthcare practices and services of alternative and complementary practitioners.

Integral Health Care Insurance

People in the United States can benefit from the integral approach to healthcare when covered by healthcare insurance companies. That dream came true in January 1996 when Washington State, under the leadership of insurance commissioner Debra Senn passed the Washington State All Provider Law. A first for the state and the nation, the new healthcare law mandated health insurance companies in Washington State to reimburse subscribers for services received from alternative and complementary providers.

Subscribers under this law could see acupuncturists, naturopaths, massage therapists and nutritionists and be covered by their insurance companies. The law was well suited to the needs of the general public and well received, but not so by the state’s major health insurance companies. Regence Blue Shield, Pemco, New York Life and Blue Cross filed lawsuits against the office of the insurance commissioner the day the law was passed.

With the support of the new state law Dr. Noah co-founded and capitalized WellNet LLC with $2 million dollars to take this popular integral practice concept statewide through an initial public offering.

Additionally, under the umbrella of Puget Sound Physician Association, PSPA, Dr. Noah’s clinics offered 5,000 Medicaid subscribers in Washington State the benefits of the fully integrated healthcare model for less than $115/month. As co-founder and board member of PSPA, the largest independent practice association with over 350 physicians, Dr. Noah’s life long dream of building functional East/West healing centers was within reach. PSPA provided cradle to grave care to over 15,000 patients and operated with an annual budget of well over $25 million dollars.

Patients at Dr. Noah’s General Medical Clinics and WellNet clinics received the choice of both worlds—conventional offerings of drugs, medical and surgical care at the hospital plus the benefits of preventive, cost-effective care offered by the group of alternative and complementary practitioners in the practice. This was the very first time in the history of the state and perhaps the nation when family practitioners, gynecologists, and orthopedists worked side by side, under a single roof, with massage therapists, naturopaths, biofeedback therapists and acupuncturists.

Expansion & Controversy

Dr. Noah’s novel approach to healthcare was on a direct collision coarse with mainstream medicine. Many health insurance carriers viewed the clinics’ rise in popularity as a direct threat to the traditional standards of care they were offering. Dr. Noah’s Healthy Options plan cost $115/month and offered both conventional and alternative care. The competition offered no coverage for preventive, alternative, and complementary services and their conventional care package cost around $400/month. Dr. Noah’s less expensive and more comprehensive integral practice model was popular with thousands of new subscribers, but not so with competing insurance companies. It was not long before two major insurance companies, working on a Department of Justice Insurance Task force began joint investigations of Dr. Noah’s clinic practices. These records and audits were shared with the Department of Justice.

On the heels of an audit, Regence Blue Shield stopped all payments to the General Medical clinics for any services or patient visits, and terminated all their contracts with GMC’s Medical Providers. Insured patients lost their care with the clinics and had to find other practitioners. The General Medical clinics were owed $465,000 for patient visits covering approximately a 5-month period. To address the stopped payments and termination of contracts, the General Medical Clinics filed to arbitrate with Regence Blue Shield. The preparation for the arbitration process took over 2 years, and finally was rendered moot by personal and corporate bankruptcy filings.

At 10:00 p.m. on May 13, 1997, eighteen FBI agents simultaneously visited the homes and offices of Dr. Noah, and the managers and employees of the General Medical Clinics and WellNet LLC. The timing of this operation came on the week WellNet LLC offered stock to raise an additional $2 million to take the company public. The offering was halted.

The FBI took sixty clinic employees before the grand jury, and conducted hours of covert wiretaps of employee conversations and phone calls, and had undercover FBI agents posing as patients. Early allegations included money laundering, funding Middle Eastern terrorists, and connections to the Russian mafia in Seattle. These charges were never substantiated, proven or confirmed. The Dept. of Justice eventually focused its investigation on the billing practices at the clinics involving complementary and alternative services.

Dr. Noah’s heritage and family history from Iran may have been a contributing factor. His father, Mansour Talebzadeh Ordoubadi was Chief of Staff of the Iranian army under the Shah of Iran in the late 1960’s. His maternal grandfather Saad Doleh was prime minister of Iran in the late 1930’s.

Dr. Noah allocated thousands of man-hours, dollars, and resources to defend GMC’s integral healthcare model. A team of twelve attorneys assembled to defend the practice and employees, and manage the different phases of the ensuing legal battles.

Radio Show "The Medicine Man"

In the midst of controversy, multi-pronged allegations, lawsuits, secret grand jury hearings, and indictments, Dr. Noah launched another first for medicine and radio broadcasting in the State of Washington. On August 15, 1998, ‘The Medicine Man’ Radio Show aired on ABC's KOMO News/Talk 1000, Seattle's largest and most popular talk radio station. Dr. Noah produced and hosted the popular live talk show for over a year. Over thirty pharmaceutical and healthcare companies provided support and sponsorship for the live radio show.

Co-host, patient advocate and Harvard trained attorney Larry Johnson was the witty sidekick to Dr. Noah. The Medicine Man aired live every Saturday night from 6:00 to 7:00 pm and was enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of listeners in Washington State as well as British Columbia, Canada. Dr. Noah interviewed differed guests and covered new healthcare topics each week for forty-four consecutive weeks.

Highlights of the season included an interview with Christine Gregoire, presently the governor of the State of Washington and Washington State Insurance Commissioner, Debra Senn.

Prison Paradox

In 1999, after three trying years of depositions and relentless litigation, Federal charges were filed against Dr. Noah and three clinic managers at General Medical Clinic and WellNet LLC. By late 2000, WellNet closed, and six GMC clinics were shut down. Dr. Noah filed for corporate and personal bankruptcy. Legally overwhelmed and physically and emotionally drained, Dr. Noah agreed to the terms of the Federal government's Plea Bargain agreement.

He was charged with Health care fraud and mail fraud under the new HIPAA regulations (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) and sentenced to a 35-month prison sentence at the Sheridan Federal Prison Camp in Sheridan, Oregon. He accepted the terms of the plea bargain agreement and began his prison sentence on February 1, 2001. The dream of building a comprehensive and fully functional integrated model of care was on hold, but only temporarily.

On the surface the losses were numerous and monumental. With the closure of the General Medical Clinics, over 30,000 patients lost their continuity of care, many having been patients since 1979. The integral healthcare model advanced by the practitioners pioneered a new concept for the state of Washington and the nation at large. The closure of General Medical and WellNet’s twelve clinics, and Dr. Noah’s incarceration derailed the practice of integral medicine in the state of Washington. It also brought an abrupt end to the company’s expansion plans both regionally and nationally.

On the surface, prison appeared to be a major setback for Dr. Noah, but nobody predicted the paradox in the prison experience. What they could not see was the hidden treasure house of hope, opportunity and endless possibility offered to him. Dr. Noah’s childhood idols, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. each formulated the direction of their messages from the sanctuary of their prison cells. They followed their heart to prison and so had he.

When he reflects on his time in prison, he recalls only gratitude, love and everlasting hope and possibility for humanity and for healthcare. He is thankful for the experience and hopeful for the future of medicine.

Patients File Class Action Against Washington Insurance Companies

Mathematical formulas advanced by Einstein, Heisenberg, Bell and Bohm confirm the workings of an interconnected universe. Forces invisible to us connect our thoughts and actions to others at distant locations. Thoughts and actions are not lost, and so it was with Dr. Noah’s prison sentence.

Nine months into Dr. Noah's prison sentence, his patients joined a class action lawsuit against the major health insurance companies in Washington State for not offering one million subscribers access to alternative and complementary care. Regence Blue Shield the largest insurance company in the state, and the one leading the charge in investigations against Dr. Noah's clinics, quietly made a $33 million dollar settlement in March 2001. Other insurance companies followed Regence’s example and made similar out of court settlements.

Today insurers in Oregon and Washington cover alternative and complementary services in their coverage. The struggle to keep integral medicine a viable alternative to conventional hospital care continues on and is by no means settled by these financial victories. But for now and in this one instance, consumers have flexed their power of ‘We the People’ and influenced the American wellness revolution.

Open Heart Surgery

In April 2003, Dr. Noah had Aortic valve replacement surgery at the Providence Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. His experiences in the cardiac care unit, this time as a patient, cemented some of the fundamental components of the quantum healing model he has advocated. Technical and surgical solutions are an important part of the hospital experience, but we heal faster and more successfully when patient care is combined with love and compassion. Dr. Noah is forever indebted to Dr. Andrew Tsen, his heart surgeon and the caring nursing staff of Providence Hospital.

The Healing Power of Love

Fully inspired, Dr. Noah has taken his fundamental healing message of love, compassion and forgiveness to people and institutions around the world. His message of love and gratitude inspires thousands of people at seminars and public appearances everywhere. He encourages us to integrate love and gratitude back into our family, our relationships our careers, and institutions. He dreams of a day when we teach an educational curriculum based on love, compassion and non-violence at our schools and colleges. Our future and the future of our planet will depend on it.

Wellness at Warp Speed

In his new book, Wellness at Warp Speed, Dr. Noah illustrates how the formulas of quantum science helped him ‘see the light’ and explain the mental and physical alterations at each of these life-transforming events.

Wellness at Warp Speed is published by Palace Press, San Rafael, California and the release date is October 1, 2007.