Some Madison area doctors engaged in unethical behavior during the budget protests at the Capitol back in February.
Remember?
Fake Doctors' Excuses for Protesters
Madison - Doctor Excuse
WI Teachers, Doctors MAY Face Consequences
Now, a handful of doctors have been reprimanded for handing out sick notes to give protesters protection for being AWOL from work.
Adam H. Balin, 51.
Mark B. Beamsley, 41.
Hannah M. Keevil, 50.
Bernard F. Micke, 67.
Kathleen A. Oriel, 47.
James H. Shropshire, 50.
Louis A. Sanner, 59.
Two more received administrative warnings:
Patrick A. McKenna
Ronni L. Hayon
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Seven doctors received a reprimand from a state board Wednesday after issuing sick notes to demonstrators during the protests against Gov. Scott Walker's union bargaining law.
"The board action today holds these physicians accountable for their very public actions," said a statement from Sujatha Kailas, a physician and chairman of the Medical Examining Board.
Another two doctors received administrative warnings, a lesser form of discipline, according to the board.
In February, teachers from several districts called in sick so they could descend on the Capitol during work days to protest Walker's bill to curtail collective bargaining for most public employees. At the protests, some teachers secured doctors' notes to excuse them from work.
...The Medical Examining Board reached stipulations with seven doctors Wednesday in which they were formally reprimanded for failing to make adequate records on the patients they saw during the protests. The stipulations also required the doctors to pay $225 to $350 each for costs and take four hours of continuing education courses within 90 days on medical record keeping.
The reprimands will stay on the doctors' records permanently and will show up in a national database of physicians, Murray said. The doctors' reprimands would be a factor in determining discipline in future cases if any of the doctors come before the board again, he said.
...Marie Stanton, who represented seven of the nine doctors who went before the board, said her clients reached stipulations with the board to put the matter behind them.
"We're disappointed that the board chose to impose that level of discipline, a reprimand, for a very technical violation," she said.
Patricia Epstein, the attorney for the two other doctors, said her clients saw their visits as "community health outreach" and did not anticipate a rash of negative publicity over the matter.
"They want to put this matter behind them at this point," she said. "They're good doctors. . . . It was with good intentions, not bad."
Oh, give me a break!
The doctors only have to "pay $225 to $350 each for costs and take four hours of continuing education courses within 90 days on medical record keeping" for abusing their authority.
That's a slap on the wrist.
Video, from the MacIver Institute:
Apparently, the Medical Examining Board doesn't really want to discourage other doctors from pulling the same stunt.
The Board certainly isn't doing the public proper service by letting the abusive doctors off with its lenient decision.
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UPDATE: Lawmaker Calls for Reform in Makeup of Wisc. Medical Examining Board After Panel Lightly Punishes Doctors from Fake Sick Note Scam
State Senator Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend) reacted with what he called “extreme displeasure” at the light punishment handed out to doctors who earlier this year were caught by the MacIver News Service passing out obviously fraudulent excuses for protesters who were calling in sick.
“It is important that people have confidence in the integrity of their doctors,” said Grothman. “If a medical provider provides phony excuses for friends and political allies, how do we know these same doctors are not making up fraudulent excuses for cases involving workers compensation, personal injury claims, or falsely prescribing prescription drugs?”
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