Tennessee’s Board of Medical Examiners unanimously adopted in September a statement that said doctors spreading COVID misinformation — such as suggesting that vaccines contain microchips — could jeopardize their license to practice.
“I’m very glad that we’re taking this step,” Dr. Stephen Loyd, the panel’s vice president, said at the time. “If you’re spreading this willful misinformation, for me it’s going to be really hard to do anything other than put you on probation or take your license for a year. This message must be sent. It’s not OK.”
The board’s statement was posted on a government website.
Republican lawmakers threatened to dissolve the medical board before any doctors could be reprimanded or punished for spreading lies about COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
The growing tension in Tennessee between conservative lawmakers and the state’s medical board may be the most prominent example in the country. The Federation of State Medical Boards is a different organization. created the language adopted by at least 15 state boards, is tracking legislation introduced by Republicans in at least 14 states that would restrict a medical board’s authority to discipline doctors for their advice on COVID.
Dr. Humayun Chaudhry, the federation’s CEO, called it “an unwelcome trend.” The nonprofit association, based in Euless, Texas, says the statement is merely a COVID-specific restatement of an existing rule: that doctors who engage in behavior that puts patients at risk could face disciplinary action.
While doctors are free to choose which treatments they will provide, the medical boards overseeing them have broad authority to license them. Often, doctors are investigatedFor violating guidelines regarding prescribing high-powered drugs. But physicians are sometimes punished for other “unprofessional conduct.” In 2013, Tennessee’s board fined U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlaisSeparately having sexual relations with two female patients over a decade ago.
It has been difficult to stop doctors from giving unsound medical advice. Even defining misinformation has been difficult. The effort is further complicated by the resistance of some state legislatures during the pandemic.
Although a small number are able to spread COVID misinformation among physicians, many of them also associate with America’s Frontline Doctors. Its founder, Dr. Simone Gold has claimedPatients are dying from COVID treatments and not the virus. Dr. Sherritenpenny stated that COVID treatments are what cause patients to die. legislative hearingIn Ohio, the COVID vaccine could be a magnet for patients. Texas’ Dr. Stella Immanuel promoted hydroxychloroquine in Texas as a COVID remedy. clinical trialsIt was not of any benefit. None of them would comment on requests.
The Texas Medical Board fined Immanuel$500 for failing to inform a patient about the potential risks associated with hydroxychloroquine as an Off-Label COVID Treatment.
Tennessee state lawmakers called a special session to address COVID restrictions in October. Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a comprehensive legislation. package of billsThat push back against pandemic regulations. One included language directed at the medical board’s recent COVID policy statement, making it more difficult for the panel to investigate complaints about physicians’ advice on COVID vaccines or treatments.
In November, the Republican state Rep. John RaganThe medical board was notified a letter demanding that the statement be deleted from the state’s website. Ragan heads a legislative committee that had raised concerns about the possibility of Ragan becoming a governor. defunding the state’s health departmentIts promotion of COVID vaccinations to teens.
Among his demands, Ragan listed 20 questions he wanted the medical board to answer in writing, including why the misinformation “policy” was proposed nearly two years into the pandemic, which scholars would determine what constitutes misinformation, and how was the “policy” not an infringement on the doctor-patient relationship.
“If you fail to act promptly, your organization will be required to appear before the Joint Government Operations Committee to explain your inaction,” Ragan wrote in the letter, obtained by KHN and Nashville Public Radio.
In response to a request for comment, Ragan said that “any executive agency, including Board of Medical Examiners, that refuses to follow the law is subject to dissolution.”
He set a Dec. 7 deadline.
Florida is home to a Republican-sponsored legislature bill making its way through the state legislature proposes to ban medical boards from revoking or threatening to revoke doctors’ licenses for what they say unless “direct physical harm” of a patient occurred. If the publicized complaint can’t be proved, the board could owe a doctor up to $1.5 million in damages.
Although Florida’s medical board has not adopted the Federation of State Medical Boards’ COVID misinformation statement, the panel has considered misinformation complaints against physicians, including the state’s surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo.
Chaudhry said he’s surprised just how many COVID-related complaints are being filed across the country. Boards don’t often publish investigations until a violation of standards or ethics is confirmed. However, in response to a survey by the federationTwo-thirds of state boards noticed an increase in misinformation complaints in the second half of 2021. The Federation reported that 12 boards had taken legal action against a licensed physician.
“At the end of the day, if a physician who is licensed engages in activity that causes harm, the state medical boards are the ones that historically have been set up to look into the situation and make a judgment about what happened or didn’t happen,” Chaudhry said. “And if you start to chip away at that, it becomes a slippery slope.”
The Georgia Composite Medical Board adopted a version of the federation’s misinformation guidance in early November and has been receiving 10 to 20 complaints each month, said Dr. Debi Dalton, the chairperson. Two months later, no one had been sanctioned.
Dalton said that even putting out a misinformation policy leaves some “gray” area. Generally, physicians are expected to follow the “consensus,” rather than “the newest information that pops up on social media,” she said.
“We expect physicians to think ethically, professionally, and with the safety of patients in mind,” Dalton said.
A few physician groups resist attempts to correct misinformation, including the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. This group is well-known for its stand. against government regulation.
Some medical boards have decided not to take a public stand against misinformation.
The Alabama Board of Medical Examiners discussed signing on to the federation’s statement, according to the minutes from an October meeting. After discussing the legal implications in private executive sessions, the board decided not to act.
Tennessee has the following: Board of Medical Examiners metThe board voted to remove the misinformation from its website on Ragan’s deadline to avoid being called to a legislative hearing. In late January, however, the board decided that it would continue to stick with the policy — although it did not republish the statement online immediately — and more specifically defined misinformation, calling it “content that is false, inaccurate or misleading, even if spread unintentionally.”
Although board members acknowledged that they would likely face more opposition from lawmakers, they stated that they wanted to protect the profession from interference.
“Doctors who are putting forth good evidence-based medicine deserve the protection of this board so they can actually say, ‘Hey, I’m in line with this guideline, and this is a source of truth,’” said Dr. Melanie Blake, the board’s president. “We should be a source of truth.”
When the misinformation statement was posted on its website, the medical board was already looking into more than 30 COVID-related complaints. In Tennessee, no physician had been disciplined since February.
This story is part a partnership that also includes Nashville Public Radio, NPRAnd KHN.
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