SAN MATEO, California — In most states, patients will never know if their doctor is placed on probation for misconduct. Oftentimes, state medical boards reach closed-door agreements with doctors that are never revealed publicly.
In 2018, the state of California took a big step toward improving transparency in the way doctors are disciplined. It passed landmark legislation in an effort to bring more oversight to doctors accused of serious misconduct.
Former Democratic Sen. Jerry Hill sponsored Senate Bill 1448, known as the Patient’s Right to Know Act. It requires doctors to tell their patients when they are put on probation for sexual and other forms of misconduct.
At the time, Hill was the chair of the Senate’s Business and Professions Committee, which oversees the state medical board and the Department of Consumer Affairs.
KGW investigative reporter Ashley Korslien traveled to San Mateo, California to interview Hill, who is now retired. He explained why he drafted the legislation.
“What I found was that these cases were, in some cases, egregious behavior on the part of a doctor, and yet he would go and make a plea bargain, basically, and they would give the doctor probation,” Hill said.
Hill said that in some instances, doctors would receive five or six years of probation and would be allowed to continue practicing under certain conditions, such as treating female patients under the supervision of a chaperone in the exam room.
“So that was an abuse of the system, because they were allowed to continue to practice. But the part that was really stunning to me, which really kind of said something had to be done, 30% of those doctors did it. Thirty percent of the doctors on probation recidivated. They did it again,” he said.
Hill was incensed and began to write the the Patient’s Right to Know Act. It was signed into law in 2018 and went into effect in 2019.
In addition to disclosing probation for sexual misconduct, the law also requires doctors to disclose probation for other misconduct that leads to patient harm, such as substance abuse or over-prescribing medication to a patient.
Before the law was passed, Hill said that doctors were only required to notify their insurance company and their clinic or hospital if they were placed on probation.
When he introduced the legislation, Hill said he received significant pushback from the California Medical Association.
“They did not want to see the patient knowing what the doctor's probation conditions were. And they felt that the ‘doctor's gonna go out of business because of this.’ And I would always come back with, ‘Well, maybe they shouldn't be in business.’ There was a lot of pushback,” Hill said.
By passing the Patient’s Right to Know Act, California became the first state in the nation to enact such a law.
The state of Washington has since passed similar legislation that requires doctors to notify patients of discipline pertaining specifically to sexual misconduct. Most states though, including Oregon, still don’t have such requirements.
Enforcing the Patient’s Right to Know Act
KGW asked the Medical Board of California how it enforces the new requirements. A spokesperson said a probation inspector is assigned to each doctor placed on probation. The probation inspector helps the doctor meet the terms of their probationary order.
If a doctor is required to tell their patients that they’re on probation, then the probation inspector will review the disclosure document to make sure it includes all of the required information. The doctor is required to get a signed copy of the disclosure from the patient — or their guardian or health care surrogate — before visiting with them for the first time following the probationary order. The probation inspector checks for the signed copy of the disclosure during their quarterly interview with the doctor.
The Medical Board of California told KGW that since the law went into effect in 2019, a total of 57 physicians have been required to disclose their probationary status to patients.
