Senator to Seek End to Doctors’ Self-Regulation

In a proposal that is expected to generate intense opposition from the state’s medical profession, an influential senator unveiled plans Wednesday for legislation that would strip doctors of the power to discipline their own profession.

Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, said the proposal would be the centerpiece of a measure aimed at making the state physician disciplinary system now operated by the California Medical Board more responsive to consumer complaints.

Presley said under his legislation the Medical Board, which is made up of 12 physicians and seven public members, would no longer mete out punishment in doctor disciplinary cases. Instead, he said, a panel of administrative law judges, specially trained to handle medical issues, would hear evidence and make the final decisions in cases against doctors. Physicians would still provide expert testimony on proper medical practice.

“The Medical Board should be policy-makers, setting standards of medical conduct and overseeing how the discipline system works,” Presley said. “It should not be in the business of judging peers.”

Presley, who has been unsuccessful in previous attempts to pass similar legislation, said he hopes the recent release of a critical investigative report on the Medical Board by the California Highway Patrol would create a better climate for passage.

The CHP report found top officials at the Medical Board had improperly ordered the dismissal or destruction of hundreds of cases in an apparent attempt to ease a backlog that had drawn criticism from the Legislature.