Pennsylvania’s Professional License Disciplinary Enforcement Environment

These are tough times.  I am receiving more calls then ever.  The issues range from PHMP and PNAP case worker treatment, prosecution enforcement actions, to delays in decisions on cases.  More than ever, experienced counsel is necessary to help navigate the treacherous waters of Pennsylvania’s over reaching, over bearing, and heightened enforcement environment.The first set of calls I receive focus on the lack of information PHMP case workers provide when discussing the proposed monitoring agreements.  These case workers are not attorneys.  They are also not your friends.  They do not care about you.They do not have authority or time to explain the intricacies or legal ramifications of signing the PHMP/PNAP/SARPH contract.  More importantly, again, they do not care.  The new file that has just been dropped on their desk has your name on it.  All they want to do is be done with it.  They are overworked, underpaid, and have too much legal power and responsibility over too many people to do their job fairly, correctly, or with any sense of compassion.Their goal is to get you to sign the contract, trick you into agreeing to terms of an enforcement process of which they know you probably will not be able to perform, get you to violate the terms, and then close your file so it can be referred back to the prosecutor to file revocation proceedings.   These case workers are merely cogs in a  wheel enforcing regulatory compliance on all program participants.  They have no authority to change the terms and conditions of the program.  They don’t care how much it costs, that you can not afford it, can’t work in the beginning, have kids, have a family, have a life.  DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING UNTIL WE TALK.The second set of calls regards attorneys who do not know the collateral consequences of criminal matters on the professional’s license and the impairment issues.  DUI charges are the typical example.  Under the new regulations, nurses must report criminal charges within 30 days of the arrest.  Under the DUI ARD process, the applicant must go to a CRN evaluation and may try to get in patient treatment to avoid jail if they are not ARD eligible.This process conflicts with the new enforcement mechanism in every case of compelling nurses to go to Mental and Physical evaluations (see my other blogs in the archives) with the DUI pending.  Part of the Mental and Physical evaluation process is providing all mental and medical treatment records.  The newly created medical record with diagnosis and treatment recommendations, you just created by going to the in-patient program to avoid jail, from non-experts now must be provided to the Board’s expert.Going to treatment to save jail time impacts the professional license.  Talking too much at the CRN evaluation impacts your processional license.  Hiring the wrong attorney to handle your DUI to save money on that part of the case will impact your processional license.  Too many times I have to clean up the mess made by good intending but uninformed attorneys.DO NOT HIRE THE WRONG ATTORNEY FOR YOUR DUI OR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EVALUATION.  IF THEY CAN NOT ANSWER PHMP OR PNAP QUESTIONS — MEANING THEY DO NOT MAKE YOU FEEL CONFIDENT OF HOW TO HANDLE THE LICENSING ISSUES — CALL ME.Lastly, questions regarding when will a decision be handed down, what to do next, and what does the decision in my case mean — have been cropping up.  Hearing officers are over whelmed. Enforcement actions are filed involving every licensing board for any professional with criminal charges, employment related investigations, and course of care cases.  Hearings are pushed out 30, 60, 90 days.  After a hearing, briefs should be submitted in almost every case, delaying formal decisions for months.  Once a proposed adjudication and order is filed, the board reviews the decision and must accept that decision.  This takes many more months.Then implementation of the decision takes place.  Importantly, all the while, licensees are still practicing. These delays are not good but at a minimum, the licensee is still practicing and making money.This process is harder on the applicants without a license or the individual whose lost their license and has filed for reinstatement.  The documents were request to be accumulated during this time are huge in securing timely reinstatement of any license.However, the Boards c and do only go so fast.  That is why fighting the case from the outset to insure no license suspension or revocation, or not going into the program and fighting the case with a license is better than losing your license with either no attorney or the wrong attorney and being at any Board’s mercy of when they will reinstate your license.  CALL ME TO PROPERLY HANDLE YOUR LICENSE DISCIPLINARY ACTION.