Several doctors are currently under investigation for handing out “sick notes” to protesters during Wisconsin’s ongoing wave of rallies over the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill, according to the Wisconsin Reporter.
The notes gave unwarranted medical passes to public teachers and other public union members who left work in order to protest the legislation, which requires state employees to contribute significantly to pension costs and health care premiums and broke up unions’ collective bargaining power. (Fox News correspondent on disruptive Wisconsin protesters: ‘There is hate in their eyes’)
The state’s Department of Regulations and Licensing is currently investigating eight Wisconsin doctors accused of dispensing the notes, the department told the Wisconsin Reporter. UW Health, the academic medical division of University of Wisconsin, recently completed investigations of 22 doctors connected to the organization, and those found guilty faced suffered penalties ranging from reprimands to pay loss and demotion.
“Doctors just showing up and handing out sick notes, that erodes the foundation of the doctor-patient relationship, which is trust,” Dr. J. Scott Riles, the vice president of campus and community ministries at the Tennessee-based Christian Medical and Dental Association, said to the Wisconsin Reporter. “I think the integrity of the profession is at stake here.”