A Malpractice Case Against ParkingMD
A new website promising to make getting disabled parking permits “fast & easy” threatens to destroy an already flawed system.
April 17, 2026
Ian Ruder
Writing or posting about disabled parking violations is like chumming the internet for outrage. As a power wheelchair user who depends on my side-entry rampvan, I get the outrage, but it bothers me that literally thousands of people will take the time to express their outrage about a post documenting some jerk’s inconsiderate parking and only a few of those same readers will even take the time to read an article about how our healthcare system is being fundamentally dismantled by soulless bureaucrats who make the parking jerk look like a saint.
That said, when ads for ParkingMD started popping into my feeds, I had a feeling I was going to have to break my self-imposed writing ban. In one video short, an overly eager woman (possibly AI) celebrates how quickly she got her disabled parking placard thanks to ParkingMD’s online doctor assistance. She practically hyperventilates explaining how easy it is and how she doesn’t have time for doctors or anything else.
Watching her shill for ParkingMD, I could feel my muscles tightening as I envisioned her pulling into the last disabled spot in front of me, hopping out of her vehicle and skipping to the store.
We are already facing a profound shortage of disabled parking that is exacerbated by the rampant abuse of the placard system by people with expired, fake and unneeded permits. If you don’t believe me, check out the excellent work done by United Spinal’s working group on disabled parking. Who surveyed this landscape and came up with the brilliant idea of making it easier to take advantage of the system and create even greater gridlock?
I finally got around to investigating when another ParkingMD ad popped up in my timeline. Instead of AI, this one had a photo of a friend of mine, sitting outside a truck in the snow in his wheelchair. I felt pretty confident no actual wheelchair user — much less one I knew and respected — would support ParkingMD, so I reached out. He told me he had never heard of ParkingMD (the photo was a stock photo the company had licensed) and was just as triggered as I was when he found out what they do on their website.
ParkingMD claims that in their first year they’ve already helped over 33,000 people get their placards online via their network of doctors who review disabled claims and submit the necessary paperwork.
In our system, having a doctor verify your disability when applying for a placard is the last finger in the dyke. Moving these evaluations online with rent-a-docs who have no history with the applicants and no tangible way to verify their claims is like chopping that finger off and sticking in dynamite to blow the whole dyke up.
Help Solve Our Broken Accessible Parking System
Join United Spinal Association’s Accessible Parking Working Group to advocate for improved accessible parking laws and regulations and increase awareness and education regarding common barriers encountered by wheelchair users.
ParkingMD is basically issuing placards on the honor system. Forgive me for doubting that has a chance in hell of working, but I’ve seen how unscrupulous people take advantage of the pre-existing flaws in disabled parking. Now ParkingMD is opening up the biggest loophole yet and all but directing traffic into those already-contested disabled spots.
Despite ParkingMD’s altruistic claims, the only reason to do this is obvious: money. All that stood between them and collecting thousands of application fees needed was a set of online doctors and a program to connect placard-seekers and online docs.
To find out who was willing to blow up the disabled parking system for a quick buck, I reached out to ParkingMD via the phone number and support email listed on the website. Unsurprisingly, no one got back to me.
Now even more motivated, I dove headfirst into an afternoon of ChatGPT sleuthing, LinkedIn snooping and general internet surfing. Long story short, I eventually discovered a work tie between a Pakistani engineer and a Chicago area company that helped me find the LinkedIn profile of a woman who was listed as the contact on the lone ParkingMD press release I could track down.
According to her LinkedIn profile, she worked for the Leafy Group, a company “attacking cannabis with tech from innovative new angles.” Under older posts I found the smoking gun that made everything make sense – a job posting looking for “Remote Physicians Telemed Medical Marijuana Evaluations.”
During the pandemic many states temporarily legalized telehealth for medical marijuana evaluations so patients could maintain access during the lockdown. As telehealth visits surged from 11% of patients in 2019 to around 46% in 2021, a market emerged for finding online doctors and connecting them with patients.
Four years later, I’m guessing that market isn’t quite so hot. What do you do if you’ve got a list of signature-happy doctors and a proven online platform ready to go? You find a new thing that needs doctor approval: Hello, disabled parking placards. Hello ParkingMD.
Between placard abuse, parking spot shortages and multiple states debating legislation to open up disabled parking to pregnant women, it’s hard not to feel like the system is on verge of collapsing. ParkingMD feels like a shortsighted money grab that could have a devastating long-term effect.
Based on their tone-deaf ads and callous business model, I’m confident the executives behind ParkingMD don’t give a shit about what the disability community thinks, but that shouldn’t stop any of us from giving them hell. I’m guessing that ParkingMD is fully aware of how shady their company is and wants nothing to do with thousands of outraged wheelchair users. Take a minute to let them know how you feel about their brilliant plan to make getting a placard “fast & easy” by emailing, calling (786-744-4303) or commenting on their social media ads.
And if you have any doubt about ParkingMD’s intentions, or you are worried that maybe they are just misguided, I’ll leave you with this…
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The has happened with Service dogs. Send money to an online company and they’ll send you a certificate that says you can take your dog anywhere.
At @129 before they ‘review’ your medical records is a lot. Hopefully the price is high enough to keep their sales low. States need start to require the healthcare professional signing it is licensed in their state and check a box attesting that they have had an in-person contact with the applicant in the last 12 months.
I know of an MD in LA that does the same thing… facebook, website
Ian, this is a timely article and one that I had considered pitching to you myself when I saw these horrible ads for ParkingMD. I wish, however, that you had pitched this yourself to The New York Times or some other far more visible publication/news service. And, I think that this needs some serious follow up in the form of lawsuits, or regulatoryaction by the state departments of motor vehicles which issue the placards.
There is another point that you didn’t make, which I think is also salient. Since we have no state or national disability identity cards in the U.S., when traveling, the disability placard recognition by state DMVs is the closest we can get to such a thing in different countries, where museums,public transportation and other admission benefits and amenities for disabled tourists are only offered with some sort of official identity card.
Thanks Alan.
The “people” doing this need to be hung, but i won’t say by which part of their anatomy that i prefer they should be hung by.
Outrageous!
My daughter has MS and is wheelchair bound. I dispise the people that park so close, or over, the line where I cant get the ramp out to let her out. At times I’ve backed out of the parking space, blocking traffic so I could get the ramp and her out. I’m looking for a rear entry vehicle now, so I can block traffic all the time, but at least get a parking spot. In some states, I think it’s a “right” to get a disabled placard when you turn 65. I understand, if the patient can’t work with their Doctor, then they will go somewhere else where the doctor will, hence Parking MD. Thanks for exposing this.
I sent them an email asking them how they sleep at night. Is there some way we can sue them?
I would like to report them to NY’s AG’s office and our state’s medical licensing board. This is reprehensible behavior and can only take place because unscrupulous physicians are wiilling to ignore their ethics and professional oath. How much do they charge for their service?
I too sent a scathing email and may also phone them.
There are buttons at the top of this article that make it easy to share and post it. Please do this so that more people can see it.
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen in my area who are not disabled park in clearly marked disabled parking spots. Sometimes they also park in the striped areas that are clearly not even a parking spot but are for van accessible wheelchair access spots. I call the police on these people whenever I see anything like this. Once I even saw the police arrive after my call. But even though there is a fine for parking in these spots without placards or handicap license plates, the police let the person go with a “warning”!