Program on the mend

Sunday, April 13, 2008 | 2:09 a.m.

Several changes have been made in a government program to place doctors in underserved areas since a Las Vegas Sun investigation revealed numerous abuses.

Reporter Marshall Allen began writing about the J-1 visa waiver program in the fall. The program provides an option for foreign doctors who have served their residency in the United States.

They can become eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship if they agree to stay here on a special visa in exchange for working three to five years in a rural or low-income urban area.

The J-1 program was created by Congress but is administered by the states. A foreign doctor’s employer under the program is an established, state-approved doctor. This doctor also sponsors the foreign doctor’s visa.

After conducting numerous interviews and records searches, Allen uncovered abuses by sponsoring doctors in Nevada. Abuses included employers’ diverting the foreign doctors to clinics they own in affluent areas, underpaying them and directing them to work 80 hours a week or more.

As part of the state’s response, a committee that had overseen the J-1 program for the Nevada State Health Division has been reconstituted and its meetings and documents have been opened to the public.

The committee has a new name — the Primary Care Advisory Council — and it has new members and new bylaws that require a much more vigorous approach to its duties. Its first meeting was Friday.

Additionally, a new state Health Division employee is in charge of day-to-day oversight of the program. Also, a Web site has been created, allowing foreign doctors to register anonymous complaints. In the past, the foreign doctors hesitated to complain, fearing their visas might lose their sponsor.

The bottom line, owing to Allen’s reporting, is that now there are foreign doctors who are not being exploited and disadvantaged patients who are being served as the program intended.

Now the state must commit to prosecuting any doctor found to have abused the program, and commit as well to ensuring that its reforms stay in place.