Few Defaulting Docs In Area

Only a handful of Inland Northwest residents are among the 1,402 health care professionals who defaulted on student loans and no longer will be reimbursed for treating Medicare and Medicaid patients.

“They must pay up or lose out,” Donna Shalala, the secretary of Health and Human Services, said this week.

The names of the defaulters were posted on the Internet this week and also will be published in the Federal Register.

They include physicians, dentists, podiatrists, psychologists and health care administrators, the majority of whom work in California, Florida, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. The largest group of practitioners on the list is chiropractors.

All are people who have not made any effort to pay off the loans, government officials said.

In 1996, Washington suspended the license of Michael D. Tyrrell, a Spokane chiropractor whose name is on the list. He owes $177,235 in principal and interest. Tyrrell did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The two other Eastern Washington chiropractors on the list could not be located for comment. They are Frank J. Dreyer of Spokane, who owes $18,136; and William C. Legg of Clarkston, who owes $81,410.

, DataTimes