Within the past three weeks my firm has represented two physicians whose licenses had been summarily revoked by the Texas Medical Board pursuant to alleged violations of their Agreed Orders. In both cases the Medical Board had failed to follow proper procedure and adhere to the terms of each physician’s Agreed Order prior to revoking their registrations.

The first case involved a physician on a long-standing monitoring order. The Automatic Revocation Order reneged his license on the stated bases that he had failed to continue timely payments with the Board’s drug testing company and he had submitted several “dilute negative” specimens. First and of most importance, this physician was never provided proper notice of the informal show compliance proceeding and accordingly never showed up at the hearing, directly resulting in the revocation. The notice of hearing had been sent to the physician’s old address despite the fact that he had previously filed the appropriate change of address form with his compliance officer.

Furthermore, the specific terms of his Agreed Order did not allow the Texas Medical Board to revoke his license for either late payments to the drug testing company or submitting dilute negative samples. In summary, not only did he not receive notice of the show compliance hearing, but the stated reasons for his revocation were illegal under his existing Board Order. Thankfully due to the quick intervention of my firm, the Executive Director of the Medical Board agreed to overturn the revocation and set the matter for a new show compliance proceeding. Unfortunately, my client had in the interim already lost his job and been subject to a public HIPDB report noting the revocation.

The second physician was revoked on the grounds that he had not kept up with his CME requirements. Again, this doctor was not given proper notice that the Medical Board was considering cancelling his registration until less than a month before the deadline date and moreover this was conveyed in an ambiguous letter discussing other matters. Understandably, the physician sent in a letter to the Board letting them know that he was presently enrolled in a Masters of Health Administration program and accordingly would be unable to complete the CME within such a short timeframe.

Apparently disregarding the letter, the Medical Board went ahead and cancelled his registration. The physician subsequently hired me and I was able to have the cancellation overturned through a letter to the Board’s Executive Director. The Board also agreed to give him additional time to complete the CME.

I think the experiences of these two clients demonstrate that timely intervention by counsel can make a huge difference and greatly mitigate the negative impact of an adverse Board action. Any physician facing a Board issue should seriously consider conferring with an experienced attorney so that they can head off such situations before they can harm their practice and reputation.