FILE PHOTO

Alex Rodriguez

Dr. Michael L. Gross, whose review of Alex Rodriguezs MRI put him at the center of a media maelstrom this week, was reprimanded by the New Jersey licensing board in February for violations at a Hackensack wellness center where he serves as medical director.

He paid a $30,000 fine plus $10,000 in expenses and agreed to take two courses, one on ethics and the other on "blood analyses and physical examinations," records show.

While a serious penalty, the discipline stopped far short of a license suspension. The consent order avoided further proceedings.

The Bergen County orthopedist, 56, told his office Thursday that he was "shutting down interviews," said Lisamarie Volino, the practice manager at the Active Center for Health & Wellness, across the street from Hackensack University Medical Center. She said she had taken about "a hundred calls" since Gross did a radio interview Wednesday saying that he saw no sign of significant injury in the MRI of the Yankees stars left quadriceps.

Gross, who has practiced in Bergen County since 1989, is chief of the sports medicine division at the medical center, but his comments did not represent that institution, said hospital spokeswoman Nancy Radwin.

Gross said Wednesday that Rodriguez was not his patient and had not received treatment at his wellness center. He did not physically examine the third baseman before offering his opinion, at Rodriguezs request.

The formal reprimand was for "failing to adequately ensure proper patient treatment involving the prescribing of hormones including steroids, at Active Health & Wellness Center," according to the states four-page document, signed by Gross and his attorney, Keith J. Roberts, as well as board president George J. Scott.

Gross had hired a practitioner who had completed medical school but did not have a license to practice medicine, the board said, adding that Gross failed to supervise patient care adequately. That practitioner went over blood test results with some patients, the doctor said in interviews.

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A-Rod doctor Michael L. Gross in eye of the storm