It Doesn't Take Much.

• Position: MEDICINE & HEALTH

A bill that would give doctors the right to defend themselves if brought before the state licensure board, the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners (LSBME), was heard in the state House of Representatives. If it passes, doctors could find out exactly what they are accused of, see the evidence, and present a defense to an unbiased judge and jury. They are Americans, right? Even terrorists and rapists have these rights.

In fact, a physician can be delicensed, bankrupted, disgraced, and made unemployable based on an anonymous complaint that might have come from a disgruntled employee, a jealous competitor, an insurance company that does not want to pay a bill, or a drug addict who wants a lighter sentence for stealing a prescription pad anq forging prescriptions.

A board employee functions as investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner. The politically appointed members of the board almost always rubber-stamp what the board staff wants. The staff generally controls the flow of information to board members and accused doctors. The doctor has no right to cross-examine accusers, to ask that conflicted or biased staff be recused, or to challenge the evidence against him--which he might not even have seen.

Don't believe it? Listen to the testimony on SB286, the Physician's Bill of Rights. (It starts at 1 hour, 34 minutes into the official video.) You will hear about doctors who were tops in their field and are unable to practice their profession anywhere. At least six physicians were driven to suicide. A physician's disabled employee lost her profession and livelihood when the board forced him to fire her. Families were devastated. Doctors were forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars and months in remote in-patient drug rehabilitation facilities even though the facilities themselves found that the doctor never had a drug problem.

Most disturbing are the remarks by the opponents of due process rights for physicians, including the Federation of State Medical Boards and Public Citizen, a self-identified consumer advocate group. They did not contradict testimony about abuses. Instead, they asserted that "doctors need to be held to a higher standard" because "patients' lives are at stake." There is an opioid epidemic, and sexual misconduct occurs, and complainants may fear retaliation of some sort if their identity is disclosed. Therefore, we dare not 'tie the board's hands" and impede their ability to "protect the public against...