Don't Try to Face a Pennsylvania Licensing Board Proceeding Alone!
If you’re a medical professional (physician, chiropractor, dentist, nurse, physician’s assistant, or any healthcare professional regulated by a Licensing Board in Pennsylvania) subject to a Board inquiry or investigation, do not try to handle it yourself! Such proceedings may result in disciplinary actions against you, including the potential suspension or revocation of your professional license. Even discipline short of suspension or revocation can have serious, detrimental consequences for your professional career.
Obviously, license suspension or revocation is the most serious potential outcome of a Board proceeding. A suspension prevents you from practicing or working in your chosen profession for the duration of the suspension, while a revocation can be a permanent bar (subject to possible reinstatement in the future under certain circumstances). However, even discipline short of license suspension or revocation could permanently disrupt or destroy your career.
For most licensed healthcare providers, including allopathic and osteopathic physicians, dentists, and others, Federal law requires that adverse licensing actions must be reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank (“NPDB”). Furthermore, Federal law requires that a hospital must request information from the NPDB every time a practitioner applies for privileges or membership on the medical staff, and every two (2) years for each member of the medical staff or holder of hospital privileges. In addition, health care entities to which a practitioner applies for a job or seeks privileges, health plans, other state licensing boards, Federal agencies administering health care services, including private entities administering such programs, Federal law enforcement agencies, and others, may request information from the NPDB. This could result in loss of hospital privileges or staff membership, loss of employment, debarment from programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, expulsion from membership in health plans, and other adverse outcomes.
It is therefore imperative that you, as early in the proceedings as possible, act to consult with and retain experienced healthcare counsel to guide you through the process and ensure that your rights and interests are protected as fully as possible. If you try to go it on your own, you may end up making inadvertent statements that you believe are innocent or harmless, but which may seriously prejudice the outcome of your case. If you would like a consultation on this or any other legal matter, do not hesitate to contact Scaringi Law at 717-657-7770.