93 VA Doctors Found Punished by State Boards

WASHINGTON — The Veterans Administration said Thursday it found 93 doctors on its payroll who had been disciplined by state medical regulatory boards, including 24 whose licenses had been suspended or revoked.

Four of those doctors have been fired, the agency said. It employs 47,000 doctors nationwide either full time or part time.

Reasons for the disciplinary actions ranged from fraud and drug violations to failure to keep records.

Lacks Internal Controls

The VA said it was unaware of many of the disciplinary actions because it lacked internal controls to identify doctors with impaired licenses. VA policy also did not require independent verification of physicians’ license status with state medical boards or independent agencies.

The agency said its department of medicine and surgery has adopted policies that will allow it to identify more readily doctors who have had problems with their medical practice before joining the VA.

The VA’s inspector general began an audit of doctors’ licenses in 1985 amid concerns over the quality of health care and the background of physicians in the nation’s military and veterans hospital systems. The VA operates the nation’s largest health care system, with 172 hospitals, 228 out-patient clinics and 116 nursing homes.