I’ve just published another piece on KevinMD about physician health program. You can find it here.
I conclude the piece with the following:
Change is overdue. Physicians who need help for mental health issues or substance use disorders need to get it in a manner that is free of financial and other conflicts of interest. They need to be able to go to academic centers and/or the best clinicians possible and get unbiased opinions and advice.
Boards of medicine need to stop giving PHPs carte blanche to dictate what physicians need if there is suspicion of a substance use disorder.
Every physician in the U.S.—and, in fact, every patient—ought to join in calling for fairness and transparency in PHP recommendations. Until there is a groundswell of opposition against standard practices, physicians will continue to get extorted, and they and their patients will continue to suffer.