As a psychiatrist practicing in the Tucson and southern Arizona area, you benefit from the many years of effort that it took you to reach this point in your career. You worked hard in college and all through medical school, as well as during internships and your residency, to earn your medical license from the Arizona Medical Board. And the tangible rewards of all of that work are significant – according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual income for psychiatrists in the Tucson area is well over $200,000, which is significantly higher than the $62,000 median annual income for all other occupations that the BLS tracks.
As a result, if someone files a complaint against you with the Medical Board, you need to take it very seriously. The Board has the power to discipline you, including suspending or revoking your license, which could, of course, have a devastating impact on your practice and your livelihood. The LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team is here to help in these difficult situations. Our experienced attorneys defend these kinds of cases daily. We know the laws, the regulations, the rules, and the procedures that apply, and we are here to work with you to protect your rights and build a strong and effective defense. Call us at 888.535.3686, or fill out and submit our online contact form so we can schedule a confidential consultation to learn more about your situation and explain how we will help.
Psychiatrists in Tucson and Southern Arizona
There are hundreds of psychiatrists working in the Tucson area, as well as in southern Arizona in towns such as Nogales, Oro Valley, and Marana. As noted above, the profession pays well, which, of course, is one incentive to defend yourself if you’ve been accused of misconduct. There is also the fact that if you are disciplined by the Arizona Medical Board, you will generally need to report that to any other states where you hold a medical license. In other words, disciplinary consequences from one state can have a ripple effect on any professional licenses you may hold in other states.
Because your medical license and any board certifications you may hold are the key to your livelihood as a psychiatrist, they can be considered among your most valuable personal assets. If you were to lose the ability to practice psychiatry, it could be very difficult to replace the income you would lose, simply because the profession is generally so high-paying. So doing nothing when faced with a disciplinary complaint is not a good strategy.
Of course, not every complaint will result in the Arizona Medical Board suspending or revoking a license. But even less-serious sanctions can affect your ability to earn a living. If you are in private practice, patients and potential patients can review your license status – including past disciplinary measures – and if they see that you have been publicly disciplined in any way by the AMB, they may have questions about your ability to effectively treat them. Disciplinary orders issued by the AMB will appear on your online record for five years, and members of the public who make a written request to the AMB can receive any older orders.
Fortunately, just as you are a professional trained to help your patients with their mental health needs, the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team is here to help you when someone files a misconduct complaint against you. Our experienced attorneys help professional clients – including psychiatrists – all across the country with disciplinary investigations and proceedings. We are here to work with you to protect your rights and to defend your license so that you can focus on continuing to provide quality care to your patients.
Disciplinary Actions Against Psychiatrists in Tucson and Southern Arizona
As the AMB notes when describing the Board’s Complaint Process, it will discipline psychiatrists who it finds have committed “unprofessional conduct.” The types of conduct that come under the heading of “unprofessional conduct” include:
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Negligent care of patients, particularly if it occurs repeatedly
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Improperly prescribing medication or abusing prescription privileges
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Sexual misconduct, including entering into a sexual relationship with a patient and sexually abusing patients or colleagues
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Failing to properly maintain a patient’s medical records
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Refusing or delaying the release of medical records to or on behalf of a patient
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Practicing psychiatry while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or other substance abuse issues
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Behavior that could indicate that the psychiatrist is mentally or physically unable to practice psychiatry
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Certain criminal charges and convictions, including misdemeanors that “may affect patient safety” and felonies
The AMB will not investigate or take action on every single complaint that is made about a psychiatrist. For example, the Board won’t act on anonymous complaints, complaints about “poor bedside manner,” allegations of insurance or Medicare fraud, HIPAA (patient privacy) violations, and matters that occurred more than four years before they are reported.
Help During Investigations
When a complaint is about a matter that the AMB will regulate, it will generally assign an investigator to review the allegations. Investigations can take months, sometimes more than a year. If the complaint relates to a quality of care matter, it will be assigned to a medical consultant for review. In almost every case, if a complaint made against you is being investigated, you can anticipate that you will be interviewed by the investigator or medical consultant at least once during the process. You may also be asked to provide documents and other evidence that relate to the allegations made against you.
It is never easy to sit across the table from someone who is questioning you about your past actions, especially when those actions are the basis for a misconduct complaint that someone has filed against you. Nor is it easy to go through your records to provide materials the investigator or medical consultant is asking for. When you work with the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team, we can prepare you for your interview and help you compile and deliver the requested information in a timely way. It is important to cooperate during the investigation process because failing to do so can lead to a separate misconduct charge.
In most cases, we can be with you when you are interviewed. This can help make sure that the questions you’re asked are fair and that you understand them before you answer. In these cases, it is important to have a clear record because a misunderstanding can result in undeserved sanctions.
In some cases, it may be prudent to make your own investigation into the allegations made against you. This, of course, depends on the circumstances – but it is something that the experienced attorneys from the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team have done before. It can be helpful if we believe the AMB’s investigator is not gathering evidence that could be used to help defend you against the allegations you’re facing.
After the Investigation
When the investigation is complete, the investigator or medical consultant will make a written report of their findings. That will be reviewed by a supervisor, who can recommend either that the matter be dismissed or that disciplinary proceedings continue. If they are to continue, the matter is forwarded to the AMB’s Staff Investigational Review Committee.
The Committee will review the report of the investigation and can recommend one of three different outcomes. Dismissal is one, and is obviously the most favorable. But the Committee can also decide to offer to resolve the matter with a consent agreement, in situations where the proposed sanctions do not include either a long-term suspension or license revocation.
Consent agreements can often be negotiated. The LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team regularly helps negotiate consent agreements in these kinds of situations. We know the concerns that the AMB has about protecting the public, and we use our experience and understanding to work for our clients to resolve disciplinary matters in as favorable a way as possible.
If the matter does not settle or the proposed sanctions are serious, the matter may move forward to a formal hearing. Any formal hearing is a serious matter, and could result in sanctions that could limit your practice for months, years, or for good. The AMB has rules that govern how the hearing is to take place, with hearings conducted as part of the AMB’s regular meetings, and it is important to understand in advance what you are allowed to do, what you can expect to happen, and what your arguments will be in your defense. In these cases, you need an experienced attorney on your side, someone who has helped others in similar circumstances and knows what it takes to mount an effective defense.
Potential Outcomes
The AMB has a number of options when it comes to disciplining psychiatrists in Arizona. These include:
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“Non-disciplinary recommendations” that do not appear on the psychiatrist’s public record, including sending the psychiatrist an advisory letter
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Letter of Reprimand
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Decree of Censure – more serious than a Letter of Reprimand
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Probation, often with a requirement that the psychiatrist complete remedial training or, in the case of substance abuse, a course of therapy
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Restrictions on the type of care that the psychiatrist can provide
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Suspension of the psychiatrist’s license
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Revocation of the psychiatrist’s license
As noted above, any public form of sanction is kept as part of the psychiatrist’s record that can be viewed on the Arizona Medical Board’s website for a period of five years after it is issued.
The LLF National Law Firm Can Defend Your License in Tucson and Southern Arizona
If you have been notified by the Arizona Medical Board that a misconduct complaint has been filed against you, the time to start preparing your defense is now. As a psychiatrist practicing in the Tucson area, your medical license and any board certifications are the key to your practice and to your livelihood. You need someone on your side who understands not only what you are going through but also knows the laws, regulations, rules, and procedures that will apply to your case.
The LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team is made up of experienced attorneys who know what it takes to effectively defend professional clients – including psychiatrists – against misconduct allegations. When you work with us, we are there for you from the beginning and can help during the investigation phase as well as after. We can prepare you for your interview with the AMB’s investigator; be with you during that interview; handle information requests during the investigation; negotiate a potential settlement with the AMB; and, in cases that do not settle, be with you during any hearing before the AMB.
Being the focus of what can be a months-long investigation can be very stressful. When you work with one of the LLF National Law Firm’s attorneys, much of that stress can be taken off of you. We can help make sure you meet any deadlines that come along during the investigation; we can help gather and produce responses to information requests; we can work with you to prepare you for your interview and be there with you when it happens; and we can be the main point of contact with the AMB about your case, so that you can focus on providing your patients with effective psychiatry care.
To learn more about how the LLF National Law Firm’s Professional License Defense Team can help protect your medical license and your future as a psychiatrist in Tucson and Southern Arizona, call us at 888.535.3686, or fill out and submit our online contact form. We will schedule a confidential consultation where you can tell us about the complaint that has been made against you, and we can explain how we can help.