The law “draws an intentional distinction between physician positions and the non-physician positions” said the court. Image: S and S Imaging/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA federal appeals court has said that Veterans Employment Opportunities Act rights do not apply to hiring of physicians in the VA’s Veterans Health Administration.
Case No. 2025-1613 before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit involved a VA physician who asserted that his veteran’s preference rights under the VEOA were violated when he was not selected for a chief of staff position for which he had applied. The Labor Department, an MSPB hearing officer and then the MSPB board however rejected that assertion, citing a provision of law stating that the VHA may appoint certain healthcare-related professionals, including physicians, “without regard to civil-service requirements.”
The appeals court agreed, citing a case in which it held that appointments to physician positions in VHA are “not covered by the veterans’ preference redress mechanism provided by VEOA.” That precedent “directly applies” to the present case, it said, rejecting an argument that veterans’ preference is not a “civil service requirement” from which VHA physician appointments are exempt.
The law “draws an intentional distinction between physician positions and the non-physician positions” and the employee “comes nowhere near showing that Congress lacked a rational basis for permitting VHA to treat physicians differently from certain other individuals when making appointments,” it wrote.
The ruling was the second recent one in which the court took a restrictive reading of rights under the VEOA. In December, the court had held that a VEOA provision guaranteeing certain veterans rights to compete for federal jobs does not apply to those who already are federal employees and are seeking merit promotions.
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