Anton Bilchik FAQs

According to Leapfrog Group Patient Safety Advocate Site, VERY few. In 2019 the entire hospital (which received a “C” grade for safety) only reported 9 Pancreatic Resections and 16 Colon/Rectal Cancer surgeries. Medicare related stats on ProPublica, another respected advocacy site are not great either. Anton Bilchik is listed as having done too few to list.

We had a hard time figuring this out and Anton Bilchik, when asked, was no help. The only hospital we found that gave him a position before he was brought on at Saint John in 2012 was the now defunct Century City Hospital. This small, community Hospital, where Anton purportedly worked from 2001 to 2008, when they filed for bankruptcy and closed down, did few cancer surgeries. During his sojourn, Century City Hospital was investigated by the FBI for giving Kickbacks to doctors, an act the owners, Tenent, were indicted for at another one of their So-Cal Hospitals.

Again, Anton Bilchik, although asked, has not provided copies of his Diploma or Certificates. We believe he completed Medical School in South Africa which is arguably, still considered a developing country. Shortly afterward he applied and was accepted as a foreign student for a Yale Post Doctorate position. Lastly, according to US world report and other online sites, Anton Bilchik completed his Residency training at OLIVE VIEW county hospital in Sylmar, CA, not the prestigious UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center as we believe he would like the public to believe. Olive View did not make the Doximity list of the 22 most prestigious residency programs for surgery in California.

Well yes, kind of….Apparently, with his pumped-up British-like accent and his quasi good looks, Bilchik was able to sweet talk a couple wealthy donors into helping him mount a cancer non-profit named California Oncology Research Institute. Since we were not able to locate where he was employed at the time (2009) this would have seemed like a prudent idea: start a non-profit, do a little research here and there, look and seem important at conventions and earn extra cash.

The address is a PO Box adjacent to Saint John, the few doctors listed as researchers are unknown and unrelated to each other and apparently to oncology. Or, they’re from a scarcely populated foreign country. From reviewing the website, your DONATION pops up on the opening page and all we could find was a video of a stump speech in a park, a few generic pictures and a couple pictures of people lined up to eat brunch (all seemingly from the same event).

Non-Profit (990) Tax returns, however, revealed much more. All were signed “Anton Bilchik Secretary”. From 2015-2018, $1.4M was received in grants/donations of which $400K was donated BY HIM to the Jewish Community Foundation, Bilchik is Jewish. Another $400K was spent on Salary and Benefits (He is the only listed recipient). $120K was spent on travel, meetings and conventions. And sadly, only $115 was spent on research! 2019, after we exposed what we deem is the “CORI Sham” online, columns on the return curiously changed: We now see about $150k spent on research and no salary but we question where that money actually went as we suspect Anton Bilchik was the only researcher. We also suspect the “Reserve” is conveniently being used to advertise Anton Bilchik’s notoriety on Google paid ads. However, we won’t know this for sure until the next return is filed.

Professor of Surgery, Chief of Medicine, Division Chair of General Surgery, Scientist, Professor of Surgery, assistant director of surgical oncology, Director of Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Program, Director of Gastrointestinal Research Program . He’s also overseer of the heated intraoperative peritoneal chemotherapy program, whatever that is. He seems to be everything but the head doctor in charge; strangely, the hospital is advertising this position. That’s right, with the above plethora of titles, Medical Director is not one of them, this position appears to be vacant.

So fabulous might not be the best use of a superlative. Although Dr Anton Bilchik claims in a 2014 press release he is the recipient of many awards from such prestigious organizations as the American Cancer Society and the American College of Surgeons, we could not locate them in an extensive Google search, nor does he list these honors on his Website. However, we did verify the two awards Anton Bilchik boast the most often:

1. Anti-Defamation League which has, as far as we can tell, absolutely nothing to do with cancer nor does it have any connection to healthcare we could find. It’s a Jewish Non-profit established to combat Anti-Semitism and Racism.
2. The “Duke” award, was created by Saint John as an in-house award which seems to be a promotional tool the hospital uses to raise money at their yearly donor ball. Seemingly so insignificant, search results we tried do not populate it.

Let’s take a deeper look at Yelp reviews, the site Anton Bilchik appears to be the most obsessed with. Many, if not most, are from what appears to be young ladies that go from reviewing childcare facilities to having multiple major surgeries. Many others talk about Anton Bilchik in a “God Like” fashion. These are simply not believable especially considering the poor outcome and prognosis of the type of surgeries Anton Bilchik purportedly performs.

It’s a well-documented fact doctors are able to purchase reviews from vendors in foreign countries and/or trade them through facebook groups. Anton Bilchik appears to be very involved in amassing many glowing reviews and flagging the ones that do not support his glowing image. We believe this from a past “business owner” reply where denied having any recollection of the patient. Also, In and of itself, it’s extremely questionable why a busy expert surgeon would even bother to reply to the one only poor review he had at that time, but evidence suggest Anton Bilchik is obsessed with his online reputations. We would go as far as to say we believe Anton Bilchik purchases reviews. Lastly, it is a fact Anton Bilchik has threatened to sue for defamation when there is a bad review or his ways are exposed. We, in October of 2020, received a 21 page demand letter full of threats and self-adulations. It even went as far as blame our loved one for his own demise, when all evidence supports the fact Anton Bilchik botched the surgery, causing a rare mechanical complication, Afferent Loop Syndrome. This is what the report and imaging undeniably suggest. Since posting our site revealing all the evidence we suggest here-in, we have been contacted by other victims, too afraid to speak out at the risk of being sued by Anton Bilchik.

Let’s start with saying we checked with the sites that specialize in assigning this honor and have, at the time of publishing, not found a single one that lists Doctor Bilchik in their database. Castle-Connelly, the frontrunner in the field, told us they removed his listing in 2020, US News and World Report stated that he hasn’t been top doctor on their site since 2015 and Super-doctor, which Bilchik advertises on his website, does not have his profile in their directory at all. Notwithstanding the above, many investigations have shown time and again doctor rating sites are nothing but a sham. Yes, some rated doctors are really experts in their field but this is because their honor came as a recommendation from peers at a top rated facility. The facilities themselves recommend the doctors; hence if poorly rated hospital like the defunct Century City hospital where Bilchik was employed recommends him, he too will get the same honor a surgeon who is a “real” top doctor will get. We believe this is exactly what happened, a mere 2 years after Anton Bilchik finished his training he became Top Doctor. These Doctor sites then use the honor bestowed to sell awardees office wall plaques, directory listings and the right to use their award in their promotional ads.

That’s correct, Anton Bilchik learned early on that if he’s going to have questionable training and skills yet make it in the competitive world of Oncological Surgery in Los Angeles, he better come up with a good marketing strategy. He started early in his career to get TV news gigs, write blogs, press releases and rack up as many glowing five star reviews as possible. In fact he got 81 in the last 12 months according to US World News, an unbelievable number given he does fewer than 25 complex surgeries a year according to Leapfrog Group.

We’ve found www.drbilchik.com, www.bilchikmd.com, www.antonbilchikmd.com, www.providence.org, www.corigroup.org, and www.saintjohnscancer.org to name a few. All of them use endless superlatives to pump up his importance, superiority and standing as a “world class, award winning” surgeon. At the time of this publishing Anton Bilchik is running 5 ads.

Yes, and not just for one, but EIGHT violations. He admitted to all of them.

Yes, lots! He takes money from drug/device companies, is rated in the highest 10% of Medicare billers, is in the top percent of doctors performing multiple procedures per patient, bills Medicare patients at the highest billing rate and lastly, given the busy expert he is (not), he finds the time to work as an expert witness for malpractice litigants and go to business school.

Having had the same question when we started our research, we were shocked to discover Providence encourages and supports any form of promotion or advertisement that will bring more money into the doors of their hospitals in an effort, we believe, to funnel it into their Venture Capital Investment Companies. One look at their Non-Profit 990 will show you where their fidelity (and money) lies, and it isn’t to the patients or the community nor is it even to their hard working health care workers. It least this is what we have surmised. Supporting and encouraging questionable doctor behavior, if it brings in money, is part of their corporate culture. We have read endlessly about horrifying incidents like the one at Providence Swedish Hospital in WA as an example. Stay tuned for a separate blog exposing the alarming way Providence Health Systems does business.

Because in our story, we are convinced they got away with murder, literally. We believe that had someone gone to the trouble to reveal and publish this study on Anton Bilchik and the ways of Providence Health Systems, our loved one may have been with us today. Or, at a minimum, we would not have had to watch his suffering abuse and humiliation, before ultimately succumbing to a horrible death. We are intent on making sure this does not happen to other unsuspecting victims. We believe wholeheartedly patients should have all the information about the surgeon they trust to take on what is often a lifesaving surgery.