Grounds for Disciplinary Action, Complaint Process, and Sanctions
Grounds for Disciplinary Action, Complaint Process, and Sanctions
Grounds
The Act and Board rules list grounds that include: fraud or deceit in obtaining or renewing a license; incompetence or gross negligence; unprofessional or dishonorable conduct; conviction of a felony or a crime involving moral turpitude; habitual intoxication or illegal drug use; practicing outside scope; aiding unlicensed practice; false or deceptive advertising; failure to maintain or release records; patient abandonment; sexual or exploitative contact with a patient; failure to cooperate with an investigation; and practicing while impaired or unlicensed.
Process
Complaint, investigation, then either a consent order or formal charges, hearing, and order. Board action is independent of criminal and civil proceedings: a DWI or a health-care fraud conviction can support discipline even if charges are reduced or dropped.
Sanctions
The Board escalates: reprimand; fine and costs; probation with conditions (CE, monitoring, chart audits, chaperone); suspension, which may be stayed; revocation; and summary suspension where continued practice poses imminent danger. It may also issue cease-and-desist orders and seek injunctions in district court.
Worked example
A chiropractor bills for 24 visits when the patient attended six, then offers to refund the difference after the insurer complains. Reasoning: a refund does not extinguish false billing - it is evidence of knowledge and a potential admission. The Board can discipline on the treatment records alone, and the payer may pursue separate recovery.
Traps that cost marks
- Believing a private settlement with the patient ends the Board's authority; the Board acts for the public.
- Believing HIPAA bars producing records to a licensing board investigation - it does not.
- Missing that failure to cooperate is a standalone ground, often easier to prove than the underlying allegation.