Important legislation in both Texas and North Carolina has AAHF gearing up for support efforts.
A bill before the Texas House of Representatives would revise the Texas Medical Practice Act to achieve two key goals:
• transparency of the Texas Medical Board’s actions, and
• establishing due process rights for physicians during disciplinary proceedings.
Texas HB3816 is innovative for what it provides:
• the preservation of patient privacy (medical records can currently be disclosed to the medical board without the patient’s permission), and
• due process rights for physicians (there is currently no peer review—any doctor can review the complaint, there is no statute of limitations, complaints do not require an oath, and doctors are not given adequate or timely notice of a complaint),
as well as what it eliminates:
• anonymous complaints,
• anonymous experts, and
• conflicts of interests by Texas Medical Board members.
AAHF has written to Texas legislators urging them to restore integrity to the medical profession in the state of Texas.
Tami Wahl, AAHF Legislative Director, is also closing monitoring S958, a similar bill slated for action in the North Carolina Senate this week. There and elsewhere innovative physicians face loss of their medical license, their livelihood, their income, their business, together with tremendous professional, financial, and emotional stress, when the state board of licensure comes calling. After the licensure boards do their work, physicians often face still more charges from the states themselves. The double blow can be devastating.
Contact Tami Wahl, Legislative Director, AAHF, [email protected], 800.230.2762, if you know of efforts to effect similar legislative action in any state. Protecting the rights of physicians to practice is a critical health freedom issue.