V.A. Doctor Suspended Over Prescriptions

CINCINNATI — Officials have indefinitely suspended the deputy chief of staff at the Cincinnati Veterans Affairs Medical Center in a move her lawyers call a “publicity stunt.”

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports Dr. Barbara Temeck was suspended for writing three prescriptions for a private patient between December 2012 and May 2013. Her lawyer, Ken Hawley, says the suspension likely will be followed by her firing.

Hawley says Temeck was suspended to cover up a troubled relationship between the VA and the University of Cincinnati Health system, which she tried to correct. A statement from Temeck this month said the suspension was less about the prescriptions and more about “getting rid of me so that the fraud, waste and mismanagement at the Cincinnati VA can continue.”

V.A. officials declined to comment.

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