Disciplinary Actions, Violations, and Enforcement Procedures
Domain 7 tests how enforcement actually works: what triggers it, how a case travels, what sanctions the Board can impose, and what an unlicensed-practice charge looks like.
Grounds
Under the Uniform Enforcement Act, N.J.S.A. 45:1-21, discipline may follow fraud or deceit, incompetence or negligence, professional misconduct, conviction of certain crimes, impairment, unauthorized practice, and failure to meet recordkeeping, CE, or supervisory requirements. Falsifying a chart to support a claim usually produces both a Board action and an insurance-fraud referral.
How a case travels
- A complaint or referral reaches the Board through the Division of Consumer Affairs.
- The Board investigates; many matters resolve by consent order with agreed sanctions.
- Contested cases transfer to the Office of Administrative Law for hearing before an administrative law judge, who issues an initial decision.
- The Board issues the final order; appeals go to the Appellate Division.
- Temporary suspension is available where continued practice threatens the public.
Sanctions
Reprimand, censure, suspension, revocation, probation with monitoring, civil penalties, cost recovery, required CE or retraining, and public posting on license verification. Reinstatement requires a petition and proof of remediation.
Worked example
A hygienist bills a prophylaxis she did not perform, charting it to match the claim form. Analysis: the entry is falsified, the payer was defrauded, and both the clinical record and the billing record are evidence. Expect a Board complaint, possible civil penalty, and a fraud referral; a clean twenty-year history mitigates but does not excuse.
Traps
Assuming discipline requires patient harm, and forgetting that failing to cooperate with an investigation is a separate violation.