If you are a psychiatrist working in the El Paso area – including the US side of what’s called the Borderplex, extending into New Mexico – you know the challenges you face on a daily basis. Your years of education, training, and experience have prepared you for many of these, at least when it comes to providing psychiatric care for your patients. What you probably are not prepared for, however, is having a misconduct complaint filed with the Texas Medical Board (or the New Mexico Medical Board if you practice there).
You need to pay close attention once you learn that a complaint has been made against you. You’ve invested countless hours over many years – as well as a lot of money – to get to where you are today. Having any public discipline on your record could affect your ability to attract patients, and serious discipline, such as a suspension or license revocation, can put an immediate stop to your career and your livelihood. The LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team is here for you. We can help defend you against misconduct allegations and can protect your most valuable personal asset – your medical license. Call us at 888.535.3686, or fill out our online contact form to schedule a confidential consultation with one of our experienced license defense attorneys.
Psychiatrists in the El Paso and Borderplex Area
It’s a fact – much of Texas is underserved when it comes to mental health professionals, especially psychiatrists. Almost every county in both Texas and New Mexico is designated at least in part as a “mental health professional shortage area,” and in roughly 170 of Texas’s 254 counties, there is not a single licensed psychiatrist. New Mexico counties – particularly rural ones such as Doña Ana – face a similar shortage. From a public service perspective, if you are a psychiatrist working in or around El Paso or in neighboring parts of New Mexico, you represent a scarce resource in terms of members of the public who have mental health care needs.
This is one reason to take things seriously when you learn that someone has filed a misconduct complaint against you with the medical board of either Texas or New Mexico, depending on where you are licensed. But of course, another reason is more personal: psychiatry is a well-paying profession. Psychiatrists earn significantly more than the average worker. If your license is suspended or revoked, that money stops, and it can be extremely difficult to find a different job that will pay as well.
But even less-serious sanctions can be a problem. Both Texas and New Mexico make it possible for anybody to check the status of your license and to see whether you have been sanctioned in the past. Relatively minor sanctions that allow you to continue to practice psychiatry will linger, and years after they have been issued, people will still be able to see that you were sanctioned.
In other words, if you are notified that someone has filed a misconduct complaint against you, it makes sense to take steps to protect your rights and to defend against the allegations you are facing. That’s where the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team comes in. Our experienced attorneys are ready to work with you to learn about the allegations that have been made against you. We defend professional license holders, including psychiatrists, from all across the country. We know what it takes to build a strong defense, and we are here to help you protect your license so that you can continue to provide psychiatric care to your patients.
Disciplinary Actions Against Psychiatrists in El Paso and Nearby Areas
Psychiatrists in both Texas and New Mexico can be disciplined for unprofessional conduct. While the medical boards of each state have broad authority to do so, there are a number of types of conduct that will typically result in a board investigation and potential sanctions. These include:
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Negligent care, particularly if it happens repeatedly
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Practicing psychiatry while under the influence of alcohol or drugs
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Inappropriately prescribing medication
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Failing to properly maintain patient records
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Engaging in a sexual relationship with a patient or one of their family members
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Engaging in billing, insurance, or Medicare fraud
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Being convicted of certain types of crimes, including misdemeanors that involve “moral turpitude” and felonies
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Exhibiting behavior that suggests the psychiatrist is mentally or physically unfit to practice psychiatry
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Failing to respect patient confidentiality
Note that not every complaint made to the Texas or New Mexico Medical Board will result in an investigation or discipline. These boards have limited jurisdiction, meaning they can only investigate and discipline psychiatrists for certain types of behavior. A complaint that the psychiatrist or a staff member was rude to a patient, or that there is a billing dispute where fraud is not alleged, are instances where the medical board that receives the report may decline to look into the matter further.
Help During Investigations
When the board that receives the misconduct report believes that it alleges misconduct that the board has the power to regulate, it is likely to forward the complaint to an investigator, who will be responsible for looking into the matter further. These kinds of investigations can take months. If you are the target of the complaint, it is extremely likely that you will be interviewed by the investigator at some point during the process. Others who may have information relevant to the allegations may be interviewed as well. You may also be asked for medical records, emails, or messages that relate to the allegations made in the complaint.
All of this can be very stressful. As a psychiatrist, you are used to being the one asking questions of your patients. Having someone who is responsible for looking into allegations made against you being the one to ask you questions is a very different experience. Most of us are not used to these kinds of encounters. It is easy to forget that the focus of any interview is extracting information, and to say something that is not relevant to the questions you are being asked – something that can be misconstrued and used against you.
Your attorney from the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team can help you avoid making mistakes during your interview. We can prepare you for the experience so that you understand exactly how to listen carefully to what you’re being asked, prepare your answer to that particular question, and then give your answer. We can show you how to clarify questions that are not clear. And in most cases, we can be there with you at the interview to help make sure the questions are fair, that you understand what you’ve been asked, and that you don’t make mistakes.
There are also cases where we may conduct our own investigation. Sometimes the board investigator may decide not to interview a key witness, or may disregard facts that we believe may help your defense. Our attorneys are experienced with conducting investigations, and while most cases do not require us to do so, we are ready to investigate on your behalf when it’s necessary.
There are typically times during the investigation, such as at the beginning, when you have the opportunity to provide the investigator with a response to the allegations you’re facing. When you work with one of our experienced attorneys, we can prepare that response based on our discussions with you. This can make a significant difference in what steps the board takes. We know the issues that the Board considers important, and can make sure your response covers those based on the facts of your case.
After the Investigation
What steps the board will take in any given case depends heavily on the results of the investigation. Sometimes the matter is dismissed – obviously the best result as far as you are concerned. In other cases, the board may decide not to issue any public sanctions against you, but instead may propose that you take remedial steps. When this happens, it is important to understand what the board is asking you to do and to make sure you have no questions about it.
Most matters that go beyond this point are resolved with a written agreement between the board and the psychiatrist. The terms of these agreements can often be negotiated. When you work with the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team, we will use our experience and understanding of the concerns that medical boards typically have, plus our knowledge of the facts of your case, to negotiate effectively on your behalf. We work across the country for psychiatrists and other licensed professionals who are in similar situations, and we will use all of that experience to benefit you when negotiating your matter with the board.
Not every matter settles, of course. Some go to a formal hearing before an administrative law judge (in Texas) or the medical board (in New Mexico). Each proceeding has its own rules and procedures about how evidence is heard and how the process plays out. Our attorneys understand how these hearings work and will work with you to build an effective defense that is based on the facts of your particular case. When matters are at the hearing stage, they are typically serious, often contentious, and you will benefit greatly by having one of the experienced attorneys from the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team by your side.
Potential Outcomes
The medical boards in both Texas and New Mexico have broad authority to sanction psychiatrists who have been found to have committed unprofessional conduct. There are a number of typical sanctions, but boards will also reserve the right to tailor sanctions to the specifics of the case.
Some of the typical sanctions include:
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Non-public outcomes, such as a private reprimand or a requirement that the psychiatrist complete specified remedial courses or, where appropriate, receive treatment for drug or alcohol dependency
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A public reprimand that details the reasons behind the reprimand
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Probation, which often includes conditions such as remedial education that the psychiatrist must meet before the probation is lifted
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Practice restrictions, which may include a requirement that the psychiatrist’s practice be monitored by a fellow psychiatrist
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Suspension of the psychiatrist’s license for a period of time, or until certain conditions have been met
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Revocation of the psychiatrist’s license
Any of the public forms of sanction are ones that will be attached to the psychiatrist’s public record, and can be reviewed by anybody who uses the relevant state board’s licensee search feature.
The LLF National Law Firm Can Defend Your License in El Paso and Nearby Areas
If you have received a notification from either the Texas or New Mexico Medical Board that someone has filed a misconduct complaint against you, it is important to take immediate steps to protect your rights and defend yourself. No matter where in the area you work – El Paso, Las Cruces, or other parts of the region — your psychiatry practice is important not only to you, but also to your patients, and you owe it to yourself and to them to take misconduct allegations seriously.
That means working with an experienced attorney who has helped other professionals in similar situations before, someone who understands the laws, regulations, policies, and procedures that apply in these types of disciplinary cases. The LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team is focused on these kinds of issues. We regularly help professionals all across the country – including psychiatrists – protect themselves when they are facing a disciplinary investigation or sanctions.
Contact us to learn more about how we can protect you and your license when someone has filed misconduct allegations against you. You can reach the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team at 888.535.3686, or by filling out our online contact form. When you reach out to us, we will schedule a confidential consultation so you can tell us about the allegations made against you, and we can explain how we will help protect you and your license.