(a) If a physician and surgeon possesses a license or is otherwise authorized to practice medicine (1) in any state other than California or (2) by any agency of the federal government and that license or authority is suspended or revoked outright and is reported to the National Practitioners Data Bank, the physician and surgeon’s certificate shall be suspended automatically for the duration of the suspension or revocation, unless terminated or rescinded as provided in subdivision (c). The division shall notify the physician and surgeon of the license suspension and of his or her right to have the issue of penalty heard as provided in this section.
(b) Upon its own motion or for good cause shown, the division may decline to impose or may set aside the suspension when it appears to be in the interest of justice to do so, with due regard to maintaining the integrity of and confidence in the medical profession.
(c) The issue of penalty shall be heard by an administrative law judge from the Medical Quality Panel sitting alone or with a panel of the division, in the discretion of the division. A physician and surgeon may request a hearing on the penalty and that hearing shall be held within 90 days from the date of the request. If the order suspending or revoking the physician and surgeon’s license or authority to practice medicine is overturned on appeal, any discipline ordered pursuant to this section shall automatically cease. Upon the showing to the administrative law judge or panel by the physician and surgeon that the out-of-state action is not a basis for discipline in California, the suspension shall be rescinded.
If an accusation for permanent discipline is not filed within 90 days of the suspension imposed pursuant to this section, the suspension shall automatically terminate.
(d) The record of the proceedings that resulted in the suspension or revocation of the physician and surgeon’s license or authority to practice medicine, including a transcript of the testimony therein, may be received in evidence.
(e) This section shall not apply to a physician and surgeon who maintains his or her primary practice in California, as evidenced by having maintained a practice in this state for not less than one year immediately preceding the date of suspension or revocation. Nothing in this section shall preclude a physician’s and surgeon’s license from being suspended pursuant to any other provision of law.
(f) This section shall not apply to a physician and surgeon whose license has been surrendered whose only discipline is a medical staff disciplinary action at a federal hospital not for medical disciplinary cause or reason as that term is defined in Section 805, or whose revocation or suspension has been stayed, even if the physician and surgeon remains subject to terms of probation or other discipline.
(g) This section shall not apply to a suspension or revocation imposed by a state that is based solely on the prior discipline of the physician and surgeon by another state.
(h) The other provisions of this article setting forth a procedure for the suspension or revocation of a physician and surgeon’s certificate shall not apply to summary suspensions issued pursuant to this section. If a summary suspension has been issued pursuant to this section, the physician or surgeon may request that the hearing on the penalty conducted pursuant to subdivision (c) be held at the same time as a hearing on the accusation.
(Added by Stats. 1997, Ch. 514, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 1998.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018