As a licensed osteopathic professional in Los Angeles, an investigation and formal accusation by the Osteopathic Medical Board of California puts your profession and livelihood at risk. Although you demonstrated excellent skills and agreed to abide by your profession’s code of conduct during licensing, your competence does not prevent the board from taking action against you if you are unprofessional or incompetent when handling your patients. However, this does not mean that you deserve to lose your license.
At Los Angeles License Attorney, you deserve a second chance. We can defend your livelihood and help you navigate all the complex administrative processes. We can also negotiate with the board for a fair outcome, ensuring that your interests and the public’s interests are served in the end.
Your Critical Role as an Osteopath in Modern Healthcare
Becoming a certified osteopath in California is a long, expensive, and difficult process. It starts with training to become an ordinary doctor, and then pursuing additional training to specialize in osteopathic medicine. Training to become a medical doctor takes time and costs a lot of money. The training to become a competent osteopath is also demanding. There is a lot of learning and hands-on training before you are considered competent enough for licensing.
Once you train in osteopathic medicine, you can provide alternative treatment to provide care to people with various medical conditions, especially those that affect their nervous, muscular, digestive, and circulatory systems. The principle of a fully trained osteopath is that the human body has tissues and systems whose functions are interconnected into a whole, such that if a single tissue or system fails, the entire body fails. What affects a part of a person’s body affects the entire body, making the person ill.
Your patients, as an osteopath, depend on you when they experience nagging symptoms such as chronic pain. Through your training and experience, you can use a wide range of alternative treatments, such as stretching, massage therapy, and joint manipulation, to help people feel better.
Treatment starts with proper diagnosis, which helps you identify the underlying cause of your patients’ symptoms. Osteopaths use physical examinations and other diagnostic equipment, such as spinal-analysis devices and ultrasounds, to determine an underlying medical issue. In addition to addressing the underlying cause of your patient’s symptoms, you also provide helpful advice on various matters, including exercises, nutrition, and other areas that help improve your patients’ wellness and general health.
Osteopaths also make referrals when they encounter an issue beyond their scope of training. Thus, you are expected to make appropriate, timely referrals to ensure your patients receive the best possible healthcare for their overall wellness.
However, even after obtaining the right skills and working hard to build a career in osteopathic medicine, you can lose your livelihood if someone complains about your professionalism or competence. The Osteopathic Medical Board will take any action it deems fit just to safeguard the public from negligence or unprofessionalism. Thus, you could lose your career even after investing your time, money and effort into it. A single complaint can ruin everything for you, leaving you without a career and a source of income.
However, you can partner with a license attorney to avoid the harsh penalties that could destroy your career or reputation. In addition to advising and guiding you through all administrative processes, your attorney can fight any allegation you face. They could influence the outcome of your case and fight for your rights so that the disciplinary action you face does not completely ruin your livelihood.
Disciplinary Guidelines by the Osteopathic Medical Board of California
The Osteopathic Medical Board is the primary licensing body for qualified osteopaths in California. Once you have obtained the required skills and experience, you can apply for licensing. However, you must prove your understanding of your profession’s code of conduct and the law. The board has a list of other requirements you must satisfy to qualify for licensing. However, licensing is not the main reason why this board exists. It exists mainly to safeguard the public interests. It ensures that licensed osteopaths offer safe and effective services to their patients.
Thus, if there is evidence that you were negligent, incompetent, or unprofessional in your care of patients, the board is mandated to take action to safeguard the public. If your behavior threatens your patients’ safety, the board can revoke or suspend your license. Any action the board takes, however mild or severe, is intended to ensure that public interests are protected in your services.
If someone complains about you, and the board decides to take action, it may start by investigating it to obtain more information before taking action. You will be notified of the investigation and a pending hearing, so you are ready to fight it. However, the action you take is entirely up to you. If your career means a lot to you, and you cannot afford to lose it, you can engage a license attorney for defense. They will advise you on the appropriate course of action to achieve a favorable resolution.
Additionally, your lawyer will make you understand your licensing board’s disciplinary guidelines. This will ensure you understand the gravity of the complaint and possible consequences. Then, you will develop a strategy to ensure you do not lose your livelihood.
Complaints that Could Trigger an Administrative Process Against a Certified Osteopath
People make all kinds of allegations and complaints against licensed osteopaths. A complaint may arise from a misunderstanding or from a patient being hurt during treatment. An allegation can arise due to a mistake, negligence, or incompetence. Here are the types of complaints that could cause the board to discipline you:
- If you offer excessive treatment or prescribe excessive medication to a patient to fraudulently gain more from the patient’s payment
- If you are accused of sexual misconduct with a patient who is or was under your care
- If you engage in fraud, especially insurance fraud, to receive an undeserved payment from your patients’ insurance companies.
- If you have a physical or mental incapacitation that affects your ability to offer safe and effective care to your patients
- If someone complains about your incompetence, whereby you are unable to offer a service you should offer as an osteopathic medical professional
- If there is evidence of negligence, whereby you refuse to treat a patient, or to refer them to a specialist
- If you are addicted to drugs or alcohol, and your addiction is getting in the way of your work
- If you face a criminal charge or conviction, or have a prior conviction on your record, that substantially impacts your professionalism.
- If you knowingly prescribe a particular drug to a patient who is already addicted to it
- If you recommend treatment or medication without examining and diagnosing a patient
- If you use false or illegal advertising practices to gain patients unlawfully
- If you falsify or fail to maintain proper medical records for all your patients
- If you hire unqualified assistants and place them in positions that require certification or a particular kind of training
- Going beyond the scope of your license or expertise when treating patients, instead of referring them to a professional who already has the training and experience in the kind of treatment they need
- If you are already under the discipline or investigation of another licensing body, within or even outside California
After learning that someone has filed a complaint against you with your licensing board, you could be tempted to ignore it. However, this does not make the complaint go away. Your silence may work against you in the end. The board will use the evidence gathered against you by investigators to determine the most fitting disciplinary action for you. This puts your career in more danger, since the board can use the harshest penalty, even if the allegation is minor, just to safeguard the public.
The right course of action is to seek advice and assistance from an experienced license attorney. Since they have handled similar cases before, they will help you understand what to expect and work on a strategy that could change the outcome. They will also collect evidence to counter the complaint, which could convince the board to make a fair ruling during the administrative hearing. An experienced attorney will also know how to use mitigating factors to influence the results of your case. They can highlight your strengths during the hearing to convince the board to also consider your rights and best interests.
How an Experienced Attorney Can Help
When your livelihood is at risk, do not take chances, as you can lose your license in an instant. Engaging an experienced attorney at the beginning of the administrative process ensures that you understand what is at stake and the strategies you can use to save your livelihood. Here are actions your attorney can take that could make the situation better:
Protecting You From Self-Incrimination
An accusation that threatens your career can put you into a panic mode, causing you to do or say anything you think could make your situation better. In this state of panic, you could incriminate yourself by saying some things that the investigators can later use against you. Retaining an attorney from the start protects you from making such a mistake. Your attorney will answer any question directed to you and will advise you on what to say and not to say. This will protect you from providing information that could later be used as evidence for a more severe disciplinary action.
Gathering Evidence
You will need credible evidence to counter any allegation brought against you. Your lawyer will explain to you the type of evidence needed and where to find it. They will secure your patients’ medical records and mark the records that could assist in your case. They will interview witnesses, including your past and current patients, or colleagues, to collect information that could make your case easier to solve. They can also interview medical experts and have them testify on your behalf during the hearing. An experienced attorney will work within the strict timelines provided to ensure they have sufficient evidence at the hearing.
Proposing a Settlement
Your attorney can propose a settlement with the board before an administrative hearing to avoid a formal complaint, which goes into your record and impacts your career for a long time. They will meet with the board to discuss the best way to settle the matter early in the process. If you have compelling evidence to counter the allegation or strong mitigating factors, the board may agree to settle the case. In addition to that, you could pay a fine, or restitution, or meet a certain condition according to the nature of the allegation against you.
Representing Your Interests During the Hearing
If there is a hearing and you appear before an administrative judge, your attorney will represent you. They will represent your interests in the best possible way. They will present evidence in your favor, cross-examine witnesses, and provide statements to convince the jury to consider lenient discipline. Once the final verdict is out and the administrative judge recommends disciplinary action, your attorney can counter it if it affects your license or reputation. They can fight a public citation or reprimand to protect your reputation, or a license revocation or suspension to defend your livelihood.
Find a Competent Osteopathic License Defense Attorney Near Me
Keeping an osteopathic license in Los Angeles is not simple. If the public complains of your negligence, unprofessionalism, or incompetence, the Osteopathic Medical Board will take immediate action to protect other patients from harm. This can ruin your reputation or leave you without a livelihood.
At Los Angeles License Attorney, we help professionals like you fight for the careers they chose and worked hard to build. A one-time mistake or disagreement does not have to ruin your career. We can partner with you to fight any allegations to protect your license and livelihood. Call our office at 424-554-1140 to understand how we can do that.
