Maryland Board of Physicians scams doctors

Maryland Board of Physicians scams doctors

Maryland Board of Physicians is in no position to judge the competence of its flock. Forty percent of its membership is non-physicians, making it tantamount to an old style soviet review panel.  New physicians taking their first steps to become licensed practitioners are not told the pitfalls and downside of the piece of paper they are paying dearly for. Licensed physicians practice a spectrum of specialties after extensive training and testing. Competence is determined long before American medical school graduates step into the legal milieu waiting for them. Confrontational forces are churning within the Medical Board’s structure to hunt down any physician who moves away from their nebulous practice criteria. Physicians enter a no man’s land when carrying out their set duties as practitioners. The Medical Board, over the last 15 years, has failed to promulgate rules of procedure for; medical record review, office review, clinical evaluation of physicians, review of foreign graduates and more. Private entities perform medical record reviews for the Board using their own criteria, shifting their responsibility to someone else. Friendly Courts have determined that the Medical Board can revoke a medical license using the work of one of these private entities, even if the reviewer is in another specialty from the one under discussion. Worse, the Court of Special Appeals recently affirmed a case allowing only one physician accuser to be the sole basis of a medical license revocation. Any attempts by physicians to challenge the Board are met with gleeful rebuke by their friends in the judicial system. Maryland does not have an independent Judiciary, the bias jumps off the bench when a physician’s case is before the men and women in black. Perhaps some sense and sensibility will return to this administrative entity after the Maryland Legislature’s scathing audit on the illicit activities of this rogue state board were revealed. For those physicians who have recently been licensed walk the straight and narrow path of medical righteousness, there may be a charging document with your name on it in the near future. Mark Davis MD, President of Healthnets Review Services, advisor to media, industry, government and the legal profession on health and related issues. Platomd@gmail.com.