Legal Medicine (M.D./D.O.) Physician providers in the U.S.
71 NPPES records list legal medicine (m.d./d.o.) physician as their primary taxonomy; Hawaii and Massachusetts have the most per resident. 3 of them appear in the Medicare Part D prescriber file: a registry record is not proof of an active practice.
What taxonomy code 209800000X means
209800000X is the National Uniform Claim Committee code for Legal Medicine, in the grouping Allopathic & Osteopathic Physicians. 71 NPPES records list it as their primary taxonomy (file of Aug 9, 2026).
Legal Medicine is a special field of medicine that focuses on various aspects of medicine and law. Historically, the practice of legal medicine made contributions to medicine as a scientific instrument to solve criminal perplexities. Since World War II, the domain of legal medicine has broadened to include not only aspects of medical science to solve legal and criminal problems but aspects of law as it applies to medicine. Legal Medicine continues to grow as medicolegal issues like medical malpractice and liability, government regulation of health care, issues of tort reform, and moral and ethical complexities presented by technological advances become increasingly prominent. Many medical schools have implemented courses which supply medicolegal instruction for medical students, and many law schools now offer medicolegal courses. Also, dual degree programs in law and medicine have been created to assist physicians to bridge the gap between medicine and the law.
Source: NUCC Health Care Provider Taxonomy code set, definition as NUCC publishes it (nucc.org); counts from CMS NPPES.
Most per resident: the 8 highest
Source: CMS NPPES, primary taxonomy 209800000X by practice state, file of Aug 9, 2026; records per 100,000 residents, 2023 Census estimates.
Honolulu has the most, 3
Source: CMS NPPES, primary taxonomy 209800000X by practice city, file of Aug 9, 2026.
All 29 states and D.C. with records, by state
| State | Records | Per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 1 | 0.0 |
| Alaska | 1 | 0.1 |
| Arizona | 3 | 0.0 |
| California | 8 | 0.0 |
| Colorado | 1 | 0.0 |
| Connecticut | 1 | 0.0 |
| District of Columbia | 1 | 0.1 |
| Florida | 4 | 0.0 |
| Georgia | 5 | 0.0 |
| Hawaii | 3 | 0.2 |
| Illinois | 1 | 0.0 |
| Indiana | 1 | 0.0 |
| Kentucky | 1 | 0.0 |
| Louisiana | 2 | 0.0 |
| Massachusetts | 4 | 0.1 |
| State | Records | Per 100,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 2 | 0.0 |
| New Mexico | 1 | 0.0 |
| New York | 3 | 0.0 |
| North Carolina | 1 | 0.0 |
| Ohio | 5 | 0.0 |
| Oklahoma | 2 | 0.0 |
| Oregon | 1 | 0.0 |
| Pennsylvania | 1 | 0.0 |
| Tennessee | 4 | 0.1 |
| Texas | 5 | 0.0 |
| Utah | 1 | 0.0 |
| Virginia | 4 | 0.0 |
| Washington | 1 | 0.0 |
| Wisconsin | 2 | 0.0 |
In federal data
- NUCC code209800000X · Legal Medicine
- Size rank547th of 688 specialties by records (0% of all)
- In its family2nd of 2 Legal Medicine codes, 8.6% of the family
- Part D prescribers3 (4.2% of records)
- Part D claims22 a year per prescriber, on average (466th of 496)
- Industry payments3 physicians paid $1K in 2024, $363 each on average
- Concentration8 states hold half of all records
Source: CMS NPPES; Medicare Part D Prescriber PUF; CMS Open Payments 2024. Presence in these files is not a quality judgment.
A sample of legal medicine (m.d./d.o.) physician records
- Petra Illig, M.D.Anchorage, AK1255410213
- Adrienne Curry, DNPOdenville, AL1588492847
- Yosef Schwartz, MDPhoenix, AZ1578203519
- Steven Otto, MD, JDChandler, AZ1528255262
- David Joseph, M.D.Tucson, AZ1659351237
- Steve Villarreal, M.D.Torrance, CA1851503239
- David Shapiro, M.D.Palo Alto, CA1205105996
- Jason Hardy, RNWalnut Creek, CA1932060787
- Ashley Cepeda, MDStockton, CA1730422510
- Kathryn Locatell, MDCameron Park, CA1912084492
- Kelli Smith-KruegerSutter Creek, CA1366039380
- Jay Renneisen, LICENSED ATTORNEYSacramento, CA1730980129
Registry order, not a ranking. Search by name to find one provider.
Common questions
Why is Legal Medicine (M.D./D.O.) Physician a thin NUCC code in NPPES?
Only 71 NPIs list Legal Medicine (M.D./D.O.) Physician as primary taxonomy across 30 states (peak California, 8). That is 547th of 688 NUCC codes by headcount. Thin codes are still searchable by NPI; do not treat the low count as a quality signal.
Do the few Legal Medicine (M.D./D.O.) Physician NPIs in Open Payments look unusual?
CMS Open Payments 2024 lists 3 paid Legal Medicine (M.D./D.O.) Physician physicians totaling $1K (10 payments; average $363, 314th of 470 by average). Presence is not a quality judgment; thin specialties often have sparse payment rows.
How much Part D prescribing does this specialty do?
Among Legal Medicine (M.D./D.O.) Physician NPIs, 3 appear in the Medicare Part D Prescriber PUF (average 22 claims and $566 drug cost per prescriber; 466th of 496 specialties by average claims). Non-prescribing clinicians in the same NUCC code are still in NPPES.
Source: CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES), file of Aug 9, 2026 (NPPES files on CMS.gov); NUCC Health Care Provider Taxonomy (nucc.org); Medicare Part D Prescriber PUF; CMS Open Payments 2024. Counts are self-designated primary taxonomy, not board certification.
Figures on PlainDoctor are read from the federal files each page names (CMS NPPES, Medicare Part D, MIPS, Open Payments; the HHS-OIG exclusion list only as counts) and from Census population estimates, with the file date shown beside them. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of Aug 9, 2026.