2019 -- H 5797

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LC002019

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2019

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A N   A C T

RELATING TO BUSINESSES AND PROFESSIONS - BOARD OF MEDICAL LICENSURE

AND DISCIPLINE

     Introduced By: Representatives Fogarty, McEntee, Caldwell, Bennett, and Tanzi

     Date Introduced: March 01, 2019

     Referred To: House Health, Education & Welfare

     It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

     SECTION 1. Section 5-37-5.1 of the General Laws in Chapter 5-37 entitled "Board of

Medical Licensure and Discipline" is hereby amended to read as follows:

     5-37-5.1. Unprofessional conduct.

     The term "unprofessional conduct" as used in this chapter includes, but is not limited to,

the following items or any combination of these items and may be further defined by regulations

established by the board with the prior approval of the director:

     (1) Fraudulent or deceptive procuring or use of a license or limited registration;

     (2) All advertising of medical business, which is intended or has a tendency to deceive

the public;

     (3) Conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude; conviction of a felony; conviction of

a crime arising out of the practice of medicine;

     (4) Abandoning a patient;

     (5) Dependence upon controlled substances, habitual drunkenness, or rendering

professional services to a patient while the physician or limited registrant is intoxicated or

incapacitated by the use of drugs;

     (6) Promotion by a physician or limited registrant of the sale of drugs, devices,

appliances, or goods or services provided for a patient in a manner as to exploit the patient for the

financial gain of the physician or limited registrant;

     (7) Immoral conduct of a physician or limited registrant in the practice of medicine;

     (8) Willfully making and filing false reports or records in the practice of medicine;

     (9) Willfully omitting to file or record, or willfully impeding or obstructing a filing or

recording, or inducing another person to omit to file or record, medical or other reports as

required by law;

     (10) Failing to furnish details of a patient's medical record to succeeding physicians,

health care facility, or other health care providers upon proper request pursuant to § 5-37.3-4;

     (11) Soliciting professional patronage by agents or persons or profiting from acts of those

representing themselves to be agents of the licensed physician or limited registrants;

     (12) Dividing fees or agreeing to split or divide the fees received for professional services

for any person for bringing to or referring a patient;

     (13) Agreeing with clinical or bioanalytical laboratories to accept payments from these

laboratories for individual tests or test series for patients;

     (14) Making willful misrepresentations in treatments;

     (15) Practicing medicine with an unlicensed physician except in an accredited

preceptorship or residency training program, or aiding or abetting unlicensed persons in the

practice of medicine;

     (16) Gross and willful overcharging for professional services; including filing of false

statements for collection of fees for which services are not rendered, or willfully making or

assisting in making a false claim or deceptive claim or misrepresenting a material fact for use in

determining rights to health care or other benefits;

     (17) Offering, undertaking, or agreeing to cure or treat disease by a secret method,

procedure, treatment or medicine;

     (18) Professional or mental incompetency;

     (19) Incompetent, negligent, or willful misconduct in the practice of medicine which

includes the rendering of medically unnecessary services, and any departure from, or the failure

to conform to, the minimal standards of acceptable and prevailing medical practice in his or her

area of expertise as is determined by the board. The board does not need to establish actual injury

to the patient in order to adjudge a physician or limited registrant guilty of the unacceptable

medical practice in this subdivision;

     (20) Failing to comply with the provisions of chapter 4.7 of title 23;

     (21) Surrender, revocation, suspension, limitation of privilege based on quality of care

provided, or any other disciplinary action against a license or authorization to practice medicine

in another state or jurisdiction; or surrender, revocation, suspension, or any other disciplinary

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action relating to a membership on any medical staff or in any medical or professional association

or society while under disciplinary investigation by any of those authorities or bodies for acts or

conduct similar to acts or conduct which would constitute grounds for action as described in this

chapter;

     (22) Multiple adverse judgments, settlements or awards arising from medical liability

claims related to acts or conduct which would constitute grounds for action as described in this

chapter;

     (23) Failing to furnish the board, its chief administrative officer, investigator or

representatives, information legally requested by the board;

     (24) Violating any provision or provisions of this chapter or the rules and regulations of

the board or any rules or regulations promulgated by the director or of an action, stipulation, or

agreement of the board;

     (25) Cheating on or attempting to subvert the licensing examination;

     (26) Violating any state or federal law or regulation relating to controlled substances;

     (27) Failing to maintain standards established by peer review boards, including, but not

limited to, standards related to proper utilization of services, use of nonaccepted procedure,

and/or quality of care;

     (28) A pattern of medical malpractice, or willful or gross malpractice on a particular

occasion;

     (29) Agreeing to treat a beneficiary of health insurance under title XVIII of the Social

Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1395 et seq., "Medicare Act", and then charging or collecting from this

beneficiary any amount in excess of the amount or amounts permitted pursuant to the Medicare

Act; or

     (30) Sexual contact between a physician and patient during the existence of the

physician/patient relationship.; or

     (31) Performing a pelvic examination or supervising a pelvic examination performed by

an individual practicing under the supervision of a physician on an anesthetized or unconscious

female patient without first obtaining the patient's informed consent to pelvic examination, unless

the performance of a pelvic examination is within the scope of the surgical procedure or

diagnostic examination to be performed on the patient for which informed consent has otherwise

been obtained or in the case of an unconscious patient, the pelvic examination is required for

diagnostic purposes and is medically necessary.

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     SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.

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EXPLANATION

BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

OF

A N   A C T

RELATING TO BUSINESSES AND PROFESSIONS - BOARD OF MEDICAL LICENSURE

AND DISCIPLINE

***

     This act would include in the definition of unprofessional conduct performing a pelvic

examination without consent of an anesthetized or unconscious female patient.

     This act would take effect upon passage.

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