Skunk Chaser

Last week, 48 hours after he was named medical director of the Veterans Administration, six-foot, 63-year-old Dr. Paul Budd Magnuson came out of his corner fighting. He announced that he was sending to the American Medical Association a list of private physicians suspected of overcharging .the Government for treating veteran outpatients.

Said Dr. Magnuson: "I will name the men I suspect because I want to find out whether each man is a skunk or what the circumstances are." A.M.A. trustees, he added, have promised cooperation; they had just signed an editorial in the A.M.A.'s Journal denouncing physicians who take rebates.'

Dr. Magnuson, an orthopedic surgeon, succeeds Major General Paul R. Hawley. He helped Dr. Hawley reorganize VA's medical department. Now Dr. Hawley, in addition to his new job of unifying the Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance plans (TIME, Jan. 19), will help him by staying on as special assistant and adviser to the VA.

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