US Senators Call for Medical Boards Investigation

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Published 02/22/2012 - 8:00 a.m. CDT

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Medpagetoday.com REPORTS HERE THAT "three top-ranking senators have asked for a federal investigation into how effective state medical boards are at tracking and disciplining doctors who have been sanctioned by their hospitals or managed care organizations."

"Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) asked Daniel Levinson, director of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Health and Human Services to undertake an evaluation of state medical boards, the first such investigation in 15 years."

"In a letter, the trio outlined a number in instances in which physicians were sanctioned by their employer for wrongdoing -- which included sexual misconduct, malpractice, and fraud -- but did not face any consequences from their state medical board."

"The letter cites a report from the consumer group Public Citizen that found no state licensing disciplinary action against more than half of the 10,672 doctors in the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) who had at least one revocation or restriction of clinical privileges from 1990 to 2009."

"With the adoption of advanced medical technologies ... and an increase in physicians holding licenses in two or more states, it is becoming increasingly important that states issue timely board actions and coordinate licensure actions to protect the public from unqualified or marginally proficient practitioners," the senators wrote in their letter.

"The NPDB tracks actions based on professional competence or conduct that adversely affect a doctor's hospital privileges for more than 30 days. These include reducing, restricting, suspending, revoking, or denying privileges, or firing."

"The database also includes information on voluntary license surrender or restriction of privileges while under investigation, Medicare and Medicaid exclusion reports containing sanctions against a practitioner, and payments made on behalf of physicians in connection with medical liability settlements or judgements."

"Of the nearly 6,000 physicians whose medical boards were seemingly unaware of their tainted record, more than 1,000 were punished for "incompetence, negligence or malpractice;" 605 for providing "substandard care," and 220 because they were deemed "an immediate threat to health or safety."

"Other offenses that resulted in revocation of clinical privileges or other restrictions included sexual misconduct, inability to practice safely, fraud, and narcotics violations."

"In their letter, the senators asked OIG to identify barriers to reporting physician sanctions to state medical boards and to examine how to ensure sanctions are reported to the appropriate medical board."

The Federation of State Medical Boards did not respond to a request for comment.

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