IHS Chief Back on Job; Was Suspended for Favoritism
The director of the Indian Health Service has been reinstated after a 5 1/2-month suspension imposed because of favoritism in the agency’s handling of his daughter’s application for an IHS scholarship.
But the Health and Human Services Department, in announcing the decision today, said Dr. Everett R. Rhoades received a formal reprimand for using poor judgment in the affair.
Rhoades, the first Indian ever named IHS director, was suspended June 21 after questions were raised about $33,254 in IHS scholarships awarded his daughter, Dorothy, in 1982 and 1983.
A department report said Ms. Rhoades, a Harvard undergraduate, failed to score high enough on evaluations to qualify for one of 25 IHS health education scholarships to finance her pre-medical education. Agency officials who work for Rhoades responded by ordering a new evaluation that gave her a higher score.
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