Medical board discipline up; lawmakers demand even more

Legislators are renewing their scrutiny of medical boards in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and other states.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. May 9, 2005.

New figures from state medical boards show that disciplinary actions against physicians jumped 20% between 2003 and 2004. Board officials attribute much of the increase to medical boards' beefed-up efforts to crack down on bad doctoring.

But legislators say the figures do not mean that every medical board is doing a good job of regulating and disciplining errant physicians. Doctors and others say there's always room for improvement.

Numbers the Federation of State Medical Boards released last month showed that state boards in 2004 took 5,502 prejudicial actions such as revocations, suspensions and reprimands against physicians. That's up from 4,590 actions in 2003. Substance abuse, unprofessional conduct and prescribing violations were the main reasons for discipline in 2004.

Non-prejudicial actions, which include license reinstatement after probation, climbed to 763 in 2004 from 640 in 2003. These board measures don't adversely impact physician licenses, but the federation said they consume time and resources, leaving small staffs less time to focus on in-depth investigations.

The 2004 numbers continue a rise in doctor discipline. Total board actions rose 36% over the past five years, with 6,265 actions in 2004.

But lawmakers in several states say their boards need to do more to discipline problem physicians, and they are pushing for legislation ranging from more funding and staff for boards to mandated discipline in certain situations.

American Medical Association policy urges state medical societies to recommend to legislatures that all fees and charges collected by state boards be designated for use by the boards. Even with that money, some medical society leaders say boards need more revenue.