August 27, 2007

Sacramento County whistleblower fired: non-emergency healthcare to illegal aliens

From this:

The Sacramento County physician [medical director for that county's indigent services program] fighting to end the county's practice of providing medical care to illegal immigrants was fired earlier this month.

Dr. Gene Rogers said he was terminated Aug. 6 "in retaliation for whistle-blowing."

...In his 2003 suit, Rogers alleged the county was putting public funds at risk by providing nonemergency medical care to undocumented residents -- in violation of federal law...

The case was dismissed on an apparent technicality, and he's appealing. What the SacBee fails to point out is that Rogers claims that U.S. citizens were deprived of services due to the money that was spent on illegal aliens.

There's a sympathetic editorial on the case here. The one firing him was Lynn Frank, that county's Health and Human Services director. Another person mentioned is Program Manager Nancy Gilberti.

Dr. Rogers filed a lawsuit in 2003 after county officials "stonewalled" him when he questioned why they were cutting budgets while still providing non-emergency medical treatment to people who have no legal right to be in the country.

The lawsuit is currently under appeal in federal court, but its impact was felt in the state capital, causing a nervous Latino Legislative Caucus in California last year to push through a bill by state Sen. Deborah Ortiz that explicitly allows counties to "opt" to provide non-emergency medical care to illegal immigrants. Sacramento County also responded, Dr. Rogers said, by seeking to alienate him from his prior relationships with county medical staff and by methodically preparing to fire him - with a little humiliation thrown in along the way...

Posted to Immigration2007b at August 27, 2007 10:24 AM