Medical Board Chief Leaves for New State Post

Ronald Joseph, executive director of the Medical Board of California for eight years, has left the agency that regulates the state’s 115,000 doctors.

On Wednesday he started as chief deputy director of the Department of General Services, where, according to a statement by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, his “insight and management experience will be invaluable.”

Joseph, 55, could not be reached for comment.

Colleagues lauded his tenure at the board, and credited him with an aggressive approach to patient protection and a new emphasis on public disclosure.

“The staff is crushed,” said board spokeswoman Candis Cohen. “He was not only capable, but he had an open-door policy and most of all he was patient-oriented.”

Although some of his programs are no longer in place, Joseph led the board’s efforts to step up enforcement, she said.

He established Operation Safe Medicine, an office of investigators devoted to uncovering unlicensed practitioners, and he created one of the nation’s first programs to track down doctors who prescribe over the Internet without examining patients.

Julie D’Angelo Fellmeth, who was appointed by the Legislature to research Medical Board enforcement activities, said the agency during Joseph’s tenure had become increasingly open and consumer-friendly, although it at times had been stymied. She said the board historically had been faulted for lax oversight.

Under Joseph, the board voted to disclose civil settlements that physicians had made for more than $30,000 and also misdemeanor criminal convictions. Both initiatives were blocked by the Legislature.

Fellmeth, who also is the administrative director for the Center for Public Interest Law at UC San Diego, said Joseph and the staff had been helpful.

“I will miss him greatly,” she said. “One of the reasons I wanted the job was I knew I could work with Ron Joseph.”

Joseph has held a variety of management positions including chief deputy director of the Department of Health Services and interim director of the Department of Consumer Affairs.