The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on Friday announced Notices of Proposed Removal from the National Registry of Medical Examiners for two Houston-area chiropractors, and that they would void the medical certificates of 15,225 Commercial Drivers License holders.
A Department of Transportation press release cited the doctors' "failure to adequately perform USDOT physical qualification examinations of interstate commercial motor vehicle operators in accordance with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations."
The doctors, Dr. Dustin Mai and Dr. Jenny T. Le in Houston confirmed to Overdrive that they had been in touch with FMCSA and investigators, but maintained they were taking all suggested corrective actions and ultimately would be re-admitted to the National Registry, according to their correspondence with authorities. (To make the record abundantly clear, the USDOT proposal does not pertain to a similarly named Dr. Jenny Le, with a Texas-based practice in Houston Chiropractic & Therapy, which does not offer DOT physicals.)
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“FMCSA’s primary mission is to enhance safety on our nation’s roadways,” said FMCSA Chief Counsel Jesse Elison, according to the DOT release. “Removing non-compliant medical examiners from the National Registry is a necessary step to maintain the integrity of the medical certification process and ensure that only qualified, properly trained professionals are certifying the physical qualifications of commercial motor vehicle drivers.”
FMCSA identified "concerns about the high volume of physical qualification examinations" conducted by Le (National Registry No. 4762579227 and Mai (National Registry No. 7120983977) before referring the matter to the USDOT Office of Inspector General. According to FMCSA and DOT, between March 2023 and March 2025, the docs, married and jointly running a practice together, issued more than 15,000 Medical Examiner's Certificates to CDL holders. FMCSA has voided more than 15,225 unexpired certificates issued by those doctors."
The action, FMCSA said, doesn't preclude affected operators from driving in interstate commerce, those impacted must "obtain a new certificate by May 10, 2025, from one of more than 38,000 active medical examiners listed on the National Registry," according to the press release. Drivers who fail to obtain a new certificate by that time will have their CDL downgraded.
DOT OIG worked with the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations on the case, and "FMCSA subsequently determined that Dr. Le and Dr. Mai failed to correctly apply required standards in determining that drivers are physically qualified to operate a CMV."
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Dr. Mai told Overdrive that his office on March 29 received a notice of proposal to remove himself and his wife from the National Registry if they did not complete suggested corrective actions by May 26. Mai said his office has completed the corrective actions, which center around vision requirements in 49 CFR 391.41 (b)(10) and hearing stipulations in 49 CFR 391.41(b)(11). Mai expects to be reinstated.
"We took corrective action," Mai said, "since the day we spoke to the person" from FMCSA who came to do the interview in March. Responding to the DOT's allegations of a high volume of certificates coming out of his office, Mai said that "we find that administratively, if we upload [MECs] under one name, it doesn’t cause confusion for paperwork" as "drivers lose their card or paperwork all the time," and sometimes can't remember who examined them.
"That doesn’t mean we’re doing anything fraudulently," he said. "We've been separating out the names since October 1."
Mai said investigators brought in two or three "undercover" patients who "pretended to be drivers and said that we helped them" pass the vision or hearing exams. Mai chalked that up to a series of mistakes or misunderstandings.
For example, when administering the eye exam, Mai said he would sometimes ask the driver to repeat themselves if they could not be heard, and that the investigators were "assuming that's helping the driver." Mai said his office used to test for colorblindness with red and green, but not the color yellow. In the hearing test, Mai said he had been doing a test by rubbing his fingers together or snapping to create sound, rather than whispering, which is what the regulations demand.
Mai said he and his wife have already made the changes and are working on submitting proof to FMCSA of their compliance.
As for the high volume of certificates issued by his office, Mai said that they typically see 25-30 patients in a day, and that it's "not a big number" for his operation, which includes two clinics at different locations.
"Looking around ... there’s other clinics that see 50-60 a day," said Mai, and that patients of those clinics often remark that Mai does a more thorough job. "We did everything accord to the rules. There are 13 modules. We follow all 13."
As for the 15,225 drivers who paid $70 to Mai's office only to have their certificates revoked, Mai said he'd re-certify them for free once he's back in good standing with FMCSA.
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