Medical board would post licensee profiles and share safety guidance

The board would not restrict licensees’ ads except to stop false, misleading, or deceptive claims. This applies to people licensed by the New Mexico Medical Board. Rules against false, misleading, or deceptive ads could not limit the advertising medium, a licensee’s appearance or voice, ad size or length, or use of a trade name.

The board would give safety information to licensees when it issues or renews their licenses. This applies to each person licensed by the New Mexico Medical Board. The information would cover safe prescribing and dispensing of pain medicines, signs of substance use disorder, overdose response, and how to contact poison control in an emergency. The board would provide the information each time it issues or renews a license.

The board would post a profile for each licensee on its website. The profile requirement covers each person licensed by the New Mexico Medical Board. Profiles would include education, specialties, years licensed, hospital privileges, practice location, and disciplinary history. They would also describe formal complaints and their status, plus malpractice claims where the licensee was found liable, a jury awarded damages, and the award is final with no further appeal.

The board would set rules for receiving and reviewing complaints about its licensees. These procedures concern complaints filed with the New Mexico Medical Board about its licensees. The board would use a public complaint form, give priority to complaints about sexual misconduct, quality of care, or an impaired physician, and give complainants a chance to explain their allegations. It would notify licensees and complaint parties about complaints and their status unless notice could harm an investigation. It would generally not act on complaints about care more than seven years old; for care provided to a minor, the cutoff is the later of the person’s 21st birthday or the seventh anniversary of the care. The board could review an earlier investigated complaint to look for a pattern. The seven-year limit runs from the date the board receives the complaint. For care provided to a minor, the limit ends on the later of the person’s 21st birthday or the seventh anniversary of the care.

The board would continuously check a national practitioner database for relevant information about licensees. The New Mexico Medical Board would run the check for its licensees. The check would apply to a licensee only when the database contains relevant information about them. The text calls for a continuous check.