Healthcare Professionals with Felony Convictions Need to Defend Their License
“Pharmacy is the only work I can do to earn that kind of money,” a pharmacist who owed $70,000 in back child support told the judge who’d decided his drunk driving case a few years earlier. “As a felon, I cannot bill Medicare, which makes me unemployable in pharmacy.”
It’s a bind that any licensed healthcare professional who runs afoul of the law could find themselves in. Federal law revokes the billing privileges for Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program of any licensed healthcare worker with a felony conviction for fraud or controlled substance abuse.
Not being able to serve disabled people, the elderly, and families who need federal assistance to scrape by limits employment opportunities for professionals like the pharmacist with a DUI conviction. Adding insult to injury: A felony conviction can also trigger a licensing board investigation and put the provider’s license at risk.
If you’re a licensed pharmacist or other medical provider facing criminal charges for a substance abuse-related incident, you need to focus on protecting your license. The Professional License Defense Team at the LLF National Law Firm can help. Call us at 888-535-3686 or send us a message and tell us about your case.
How Licensing Boards Respond to Felony Convictions for Substance Abuse
A felony conviction for substance abuse automatically revokes a healthcare provider’s Medicare billing privileges, but it doesn’t automatically suspend or revoke their professional license. Rarely is it the case, however, that a licensing board won’t take its own steps in response to a conviction, including an investigation and disciplinary action.
To be clear, the priority for the licensing board is the provider’s fitness to practice. A felony conviction for drunk driving or other drug- or alcohol related violation will raise concerns about patient safety, the provider’s reliability and judgment, and the possibility of drug diversion if the provider has access to medications.
Licensing boards also use different criteria to determine culpability than criminal courts, and a lower standard of proof. Even if a court throws out the charges against a provider or reduces their penalties, the licensing board will not necessarily follow suit. Instead, as it sees fit, it will:
- Suspend or revoke the provider’s license
- Place the provider on strict probation
- Require substance abuse monitoring
- Impose work restrictions (ex., no access to controlled substances)
More positively, because licensing boards are acutely aware of staffing shortages in the healthcare industry, they tend to emphasize rehabilitation alongside whatever disciplinary measures they impose (except in the case of license revocation). Many providers are able to return to their practice eventually because their board mandated treatment as well as discipline.
Defend Your Professional License
Without Medicare billing privileges, a healthcare provider with a felony conviction for an incident involving drugs or alcohol is going to have a very difficult time finding employment. Separately, they may also lose their license to practice.
If you’re a licensed healthcare provider in this situation, call the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team. We’ll guide you through the difficult process with your board and work hard to ensure the best possible outcome in your case. Send us a message online today, or call us directly at 888-535-3686.