New York Times editorial supports FDA whistleblowers
In today's editorial, the New York Times expresses concerns about the targeted surveillance of whistleblowers at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The editorial recounts the claims made by six scientists and physicians who raised concerns about the safety and effectiveness of devices approved by higher FDA officials. FDA managers then began a campaign of targeted surveillance that included the installation of special software to capture every image that appeared on the computer screens of these whistleblowers. The editorial notes how the FDA managers sought criminal charges against the whistleblowers. When that failed, the FDA began firing them. The editorial acknowledges how Sen. Charles Grassley warned FDA officials that interfering in a congressional investigation is against the law. The editorial then urges that if the whistleblowers' claims are true, the managers responsible are the ones who should be punished.
If you agree that targeting whistleblowers with invasive surveillance is wrong, you can TAKE ACTION. You can read more about the landmark case brought by these FDA whistleblowers here.
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I have paid with my career, my retirement and years of my life for being a Whistle-Blower.
I was told years ago that the Merit System Protection Board could not help people who are in the USPHS Commissioned Corps; am I reading this right that Mr. Hardy is a USPHS "Officer" who is receiving intervention by the MSPB?
I was kicked out of the USPHS Commissioned Corps in 2000. I complained that I was forced to "practice medicine without a license" at the Indian Health Service (IHS) Hospital where I was employed. We Nurses were tasked with triaging diagnosing and treating after hour, weekend and holiday patients using Protocols called "Practicing the Art of Medicine". (Yes, we actually diagnosed and prescribed prescription medications; we even carried around the Pharmacy key, in that unsecured building in a dark rural area near a Railroad year, just in case we needed some meds that were not easy to get to in our 'night cabinet')
We Nurses told management over and over that this was illegal for us to do, their response? "This is how we have always done it, this is how you will do it".
One day one of the patients said to me, "do you remember that night I brought my wife into the Clinic after hours? I got a bill from my Insurance Company for that visit".
Native Americans 'used to' get totally free health care at IHS facilities. They followed the VA in the 1990es in suing for the right to bill Medicaid, Medicare, and Private Insurance to recoup costs for care given to persons who fit into one of those (government or privately) insured groups.
If a Native American has another insurance, they are billed for the care the Native American receives at an Indian Health Service Hospital.
After the patient made the remark to me about receiving a bill for after hour clinic services, the light bulb came on for me.
Management would NEVER work with us Nurses to revamp the way we provided after-hours care, because MANAGEMENT was billing the services we Nurses provided under our "Practicing the Art of Medicine" protocols, as if we Nurses were Primary Care Providers. This was easy to do, I am sure, because the stack of after hour "ER" forms from the 10 to 20 patients that we Nurses treated every night were given to the physician who was ostensibly "On Call" to sign the next morning. (The "On Call" physician had a full Clinic day scheduled the next morning after being "On Call"-we were only to call a physician as a very last resort, we were supposed to "use the protocols" to make diagnostic and treatment decisions.)
It became clear to me that this was Insurance Fraud and I didn't want to have anything to do with it. I sent the "Practicing the Art of Medicine" protocols to my State Board of Nursing asking for their comment and input. The State Board replied that "these Protocols 'may' be legal for a Nurse Practioner to use, but were NOT legal for "generic RN's" to use.
I turned the State Board reply into the hospitals Indian Health Service Management. Within 16 weeks they had arranged for me to be kicked out of the USPHS Commissioned Corps. I had had two "excellent" evaluations at that IHS hospital, the most recent one 12 weeks before I wrote to my State Board; in fact, I had been a Commissioned Officer for 12 unbroken years since I had previously served in the Army Nurse Corps. I had two ARCOMS and two (Unit) Bronze Stars, among other citations and awards, and I had NEVER had a bad evaluation.
No one, in the hospital, or the Commissioned Corps, ever told me what was going to happen to me. One day I discovered, by accident, that there was an "adverse action" pending against me. I called the Phoenix IHS Area office and asked to speak with the Commissioned Corps liaison. "Oh, you are being put out of the Corps", she told me, "you are getting a dishonorable discharge." "What"! I said, my heart literally sinking into my stomach, "what are you talking about." "The IHS has requested that you be put out of the Corps", she said. "How can this be", I asked her, "do you know the kinds of things you have to have beed PROVED to have done to get a dishonorable discharge from a United States Service"? "Well, I don't know", she laughed, "but you are getting one."
Can you even IMAGINE that a conversation like this actually took place! Well, take my word for it, it did.
I got the orders kicking me out two weeks before Christmas (Merry Christmas!), with an effective date of 31 January. The new year rolled around and I found myself with no job, and, I did not know if I could even get a job, since I had been "dishonorably discharged"; and NEVER, not ONCE did anyone call me into their office or EVER tell me to my face WHAT was going on!
I decided to fight what had happened to me, even though the USPHS Commissioned Corps 'Adverse Actions Officer', Cheryl laughed at me on the phone and said, "you can fight if you want to, but you know what they say...you can't fight city hall." I had NO idea where to begin, but after hundreds of phone calls and letters I finally found someone (bless him) who said, "if you feel you have been discharged in error, all you need to do is apply to the Commissioned Corps Board for Correction of Records".
I applied to this Board, and my case was accepted. The first thing I received from the USPHS after my case was accepted? Seven spent 9mm bullet casings in a USPHS envelope! I supposed this was meant to scare me, and it did scare me, but, after thinking it over, for a good while, I thought, 'would you rather live like this, or at least take a chance and set things right'.
It took me three years but I finally won my case (Case # 225-00, in case anyone thinks I am making this up)..."this Officer has done nothing wrong"...I read to my great relief and joy, then I saw the half torn piece of paper that was enclosed with this document. It was from someone who billed himself as the "direct designee" of the Secretary of Health and Human Services..."I concur with this decision".
Of course I appealed this "non-concurrence", only to be told by the NEXT person who claimed to be the direct designee of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, a man named Mike Blank (who I have been told is really nothing more than a 'paymaster') in language that no human can understand, that my appeal was denied.
A few weeks later i was mulling over what to do, while standing on a ladder painting my kitchen, when the phone rang. A deep male voice said, "Ma am,this is SGT____. No one in this Unit knows who you are, but you need to know that you have been activated in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and you have 24 hours to report to duty". A chill went down my spine, how, in three devils name, could I be called up by the US Army if I was a kicked out Commissioned Corps Officer??!!
I was taought in the Army Officer Advanced Course that missing troop movement is a federal crime, so I dug out my boots, uniform, and dog tags and reported to the 2291st US Army Hospital. I tried to explain my situation, but what had happened to me is not exactly the kind of thing that a person tells a Sargent who is trying to get troops mobilized to deploy. I went to Ft. Riley, Kansas and served 15 happy (happy because I had a job, and a paycheck, and my self respect back) months on Active Duty.
I did go to the JAG Officer at Ft. Riley and told him my story. He sat back in his chair when I had finished and looked at me a long time. "You know Ma am; every time we have these massive call-ups we have people coming in her and tell us that we have made a mistake and they are not really in the Army. I have to say that your story is a pretty good one, but I have to tell you that if you are putting on the Uniform every day, and going to work every day, and getting paid...you are in the Army now!" This made me feel a bit better, because I actually wanted to be in the Army, I just did not see how I could be.
When I got home from that assignment I went through my Personnel File that I had gotten from the USPHS Commissioned Corps via a FOIA request (one of the FEW things I was given by FOIA) early on in my battle with the Commissioned Corps Board. I looked and looked, until it finally dawned on me that it was not what I was seeing, but what I was NOT seeing, that was probably the key to what had happened. The Commissioned Corps had NEVER gotten a release from the Army for my Commission when I interservice transferred to the Commissioned Corps from the Army. Therefore, I must have actually been a non drilling Army Reserve Officer during the entire time I was in the USPHS Commissioned Corps before they kicked me out.
I stayed in the Army Reserve and did another Tour of Duty at Landsthul Army Medical Center in Germany, and I even did a short stent with the European Reserve Unit in the Republic of Georgia. Unfortunately for me I reached the age limit and was put out of the Army.
Now, I am faced with the fact that I have perhaps 20 years of service, but I cannot get those three years that I was Active with the USPHS Commissioned Corps counted because the Army did not have me down as being "active" duting that period. A person can only hold one Commission in one Service at a time, everyone knows that, but what about a situation like mine? I had no way of knowing that I was in the Army when I was in the Commissioned Corps. It is really, really, not my fault that the USPHS Commissioned Corps is too stupid to actually do what they are supposed to do, and get a release for Officers they take from another Service.
There is NO ONE in the federal government for me to turn to. The Army followed their procedures and did what their regulations said to do, the Army treated me good and is not at fault. The Commissioned Corps...well, they are not under the "Uniformed Code of Military Justice", but they are also not under the Merit Protection Board, at least according to them, so what recourse does a person have who was mega-screw*d by the Commissioned Corps have?
Thank you for reading this far, and if you have any answers or suggestions for me please e mail me at jherbst@tularosa.net.