The Board of Registered Nursing accused our client of gross negligence and incompetence in the practice of nursing following alleged failure to obtain or document a specific reading with respect to a patient under her care. To resolve the case, our client was willing to enter into a public letter of reproval, but the Board
California Health Care Issues
Healthcare Facility Reporting of Sexual Abuse or Misconduct Allegations Against Physicians
Mandated Reporting of Sexual Misconduct Allegations against California Licensed Physicians by Healthcare Facilities
The Medical Board of California and other healthcare licensing boards hold licensed physicians and other healthcare licensees to an extremely high standard regarding sexual misconduct allegations. Every day physicians, and other healthcare licensees, who communicate with hundreds of patients each week, face …
Physician Assistant Law Changes under SB 697
More Practice-Level Guidelines for Physician Assistants
The Physician Assistant Practice Act sets forth supervision requirements for licensed physician assistants (PAs) in California. These requirements set statewide standards for supervision, agreements, and protocols mostly under the delegation of physicians and surgeons.
Signed by Governor Newsom on October 9, 2019, and effective January 1, 2020, Senate Bill …
AB528 Ushers in Updates to C.U.R.E.S.
Tweaks to C.U.R.E.S. Database Reporting and Access
The Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (C.U.R.E.S.) is a prescription monitoring program maintained by California’s licensed physicians, licensed physician assistants, licensed pharmacies, licensed pharmacists, and any other prescribing California health care professionals. On October 2, 2018, the California Department of Justice (DOJ) certified the mandatory statewide …
What California’s New “California Health Corps” Means for Health Care Licensees
As part of the State of California’s ongoing battle against the spread of COVID-19, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the formation of the California Health Corps, a measure designed to dramatically expand the health care workforce and staff the additional hospital beds necessary to treat COVID-19 patients. The breadth of the health corps encompasses nearly…
Rehabilitation for Medical Professionals During COVID-19
The worldwide spread of COVID-19 is placing unprecedented stress and demand on California physicians, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other medical professionals. However, despite these urgent demands, the administrative disciplinary system continues to investigate claims of unprofessional conduct, and hearings for nurses and doctors are still being scheduled, prepared, and settled, despite the…
C.U.R.E.S. – Mandatory and More Powerful Than Ever
California’s Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System, or C.U.R.E.S. (CURES) for short, is a prescription monitoring program aggregating DEA Schedule II, II and IV prescriptions. Maintained by the California Department of Justice and primarily used by physicians, podiatrists, dentists, physician assistants, optometrists, nurse practitioners, pharmacies and pharmacists, C.U.R.E.S. represents a massive, relatively…
C.U.R.E.S. Database Facilitates Violations of Patient Privacy
As I have written about before, the C.U.R.E.S. database was created and is maintained by the California Department of Justice to track the prescriptions of Californians. The purpose of this database is ostensibly to detect patient prescription drug abuse and over-prescribing by physicians. However, C.U.R.E.S. is a huge medical information database that is unprotected from unchecked…
Challenging National Practitioner Data Bank Entries
The enactment of The Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 by the federal government led to the creation of the National Practitioner Data Bank, or NPDB, for the reporting of adverse actions, including license discipline, which can be accessed by government and private health care organizations. The inclusion of inaccurate information in the NPDB…
Health Care Boards Focus On Supervision and Unlicensed Practice
Health care boards in California are increasingly focusing on supervision issues, which can result in discipline for aiding and abetting unlicensed practice. Two examples of this are a warning recently issued by the Medical Board of California to its licensees, and a recent reversal of a longstanding position by the Physical Therapy Board. Licensees should…