Wisconsin’s medical board has reprimanded seven doctors for writing fake sick notes for teachers who took time off to go to Madison to protest Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s budget cutbacks, including withdrawing public employees’ collective-bargaining rights.
The Medical Examining Board said the doctors didn’t document that they spent enough time interacting with the patients to diagnose any kind of condition before giving them excuse notes,
The Cap Times in Madison reported today.
"There was no way to determine what kind of evaluation was actually made of an individual before these physicians issued their medical excuses," Dr. Sujatha Kailas, chairman of the Medical Examining Board, said in a statement issued Wednesday.
Republican state Sen. Glenn Grothman commented on the reprimand, saying, “It is important that people have confidence in the integrity of their doctors. If a medical provider provides phony excuses for friends and political allies, how do we know these same doctors are not making up fraudulent excuses for cases involving workers compensation, personal injury claims or falsely prescribing prescription drugs?"
There were massive protests at the Capitol in Madison in February and March, when several Democrats fled the state rather than vote on Walker’s legislation to curtail the power of unions representing teachers and other public sector employees.
The protests propelled recall movements against both Democratic and Republican senators during the summer. Democrats and unions also launched recall efforts this week against the freshman governor and four Republican state senators.
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