New Texas law bans anonymous complaints about doctors

[my2sense]

A law that took effect this month bars the Texas Medical Board from considering complaints against doctors if they come from anonymous sources like the complaint from two Winkler County nurses who lost their jobs after anonymously urging the board to investigate a doctor in 2009.

The legislation was a victory for a physicians' group that sued the medical board in December 2007 over allegations that it was abusing the anonymous complaint process. The suit also accused a former president of the board of using her husband to file anonymous complaints against her competitors to get those physicians disciplined.

Some doctors in the group and others lobbied the Legislature for several years to ban the practice and wanted lawmakers to snip the board's powers. One such leader, Dr. Steve Hotze of Houston, is a proponent of alternative medicine and president of Texans for Patients' and Physicians' Rights , whose No. 1 goal is eliminating anonymous complaints from insurance companies, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, attorneys and competitors.

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Two Winkler County nurses, Vickilyn Galle, left, and Anne Mitchell, were charged with a felony after a doctor learned of their anonymous complaint about him and enlisted a friendly sheriff.
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source:http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/new-law-bans-anonymous-complaints-about-doctors-1865789.html

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