The PHMP and Medical Authorizations

Every license investigations includes a PHMP case manager and a caseworker who insures compliance with paper work completion. The first document sent to every targeted licensee includes medical releases. This intentional. These documents are attached to the back of the PHMP twenty six page questionnaire or Consent Agreement. Or, sometimes, the medical record releases are secured by the Bureau of investigations Enforcement (BIE) investigators who show up a your house at six in the evening to just talk.The typical licensee, feeling scared and compelled to complete and sign the forms, by doing so, permits the investigation to proceed. I usually find that the licensee was hoping this would stop the investigation in its tracks because “they have nothing to hide.”  DON’T SIGN THE FORMS.Every licensee must understand the legal significance of these documents they are signing, what the authorizations/permission of dissemination of medical records means, and how these documents will be used against the licensee.  They will use this information to suspend, revoke, or discipline your license.Thissue arises at the outset of every impairment investigation. Each investigator is trained to secure executed medical authorizations in order to peel back a licensee’s personal treatment history. Invariably references to social or experimental illicit narcotic or alcohol use included in medical histories. This allows the evaluators to suppose or overlay an impairment investigation with a history of drug and alcohol use. More importantly, medical records permit investigations to mushroom from an original complaint into additional disciplinary causes unrelated to any impairment or abuse investigation.The authorizations are also used to allow PHMP evaluators in the drug treatment facilities to disseminate their report to the PHMP case managers. Problematic here is that the drug evaluator or assessor routinely claims that they are not allowed to release the report for which the licensee paid to that licensee. These assessor reports are different from the mental and physical evaluations.Please call me to discuss these issues.