Legal fight escalates over physician’s sanctions for past drug use

The Iowa Board of Medicine is fighting to sanction an emergency room physician who allegedly “drank to excess and used cocaine, opiates, mushrooms, and marijuana,” often within 24 hours of working. According to the Iowa Board of Medicine, Dr. Chad Becker, who once practiced at UnityPoint Health’s Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, admitted routinely consuming an excessive amount of drugs and/or alcohol prior to 2022, resulting in a referral to the Iowa Physician Health Program for treatment. According to the board, Becker ultimately chose not to comply with the program’s requirements and so the issue of his substance abuse was referred back to the board in November 2022. In February 2026, the board ruled a license suspension of 90 days was warranted, as was an $8,000 civil penalty. Becker then went to Polk County District Court, seeking judicial review of that sanction as well as the board’s subsequent refusal to grant him a new hearing on the matter.

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