GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1993 SESSION
CHAPTER 241
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1. G.S. 90-14(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a) The Board shall have the power to deny, annul, suspend, or revoke a license, or other authority to practice medicine in this State, issued by the Board to any person who has been found by the Board to have committed any of the following acts or conduct, or for any of the following reasons:
(1) Immoral or
dishonorable conduct; conduct.
(2) Producing or
attempting to produce an abortion contrary to law; law.
(3) Made false statements
or representations to the Board, or who has willfully concealed from the Board
material information in connection with his application for a license; license.
(4) Repealed by Session Laws 1977, c. 838, s. 3.
(5) Being unable to
practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety to patients by reason of
illness, drunkenness, excessive use of alcohol, drugs, chemicals, or any other
type of material or by reason of any physical or mental abnormality. The Board
is empowered and authorized to require a physician licensed by it to submit to
a mental or physical examination by physicians designated by the Board
before or after charges may be presented against him, and the results of
examination shall be admissible in evidence in a hearing before the Board; Board.
(6) Unprofessional
conduct, including, but not limited to, any departure from, or the
failure to conform to, the standards of acceptable and prevailing medical
practice, or the ethics of the medical profession, irrespective of
whether or not a patient is injured thereby, or the committing of any act
contrary to honesty, justice, or good morals, whether the same is committed in
the course of his practice or otherwise, and whether committed within or
without North Carolina; Carolina. The Board shall not revoke
the license of or deny a license to a person solely because of that person's
practice of a therapy that is experimental, nontraditional, or that departs
from acceptable and prevailing medical practices unless, by competent evidence,
the Board can establish that the treatment has a safety risk greater than the
prevailing treatment or that the treatment is generally not effective.
(7) Conviction in any
court of a crime involving moral turpitude, or the violation of a law involving
the practice of medicine, or a conviction of a felony; provided that a felony
conviction shall be treated as provided in subsection (c) of this section; section.
(8) By false
representations has obtained or attempted to obtain practice, money or anything
of value; value.
(9) Has advertised or
publicly professed to treat human ailments under a system or school of
treatment or practice other than that for which he has been educated; educated.
(10) Adjudication of mental
incompetency, which shall automatically suspend a license unless the Board
orders otherwise; otherwise.
(11) Lack of professional competence
to practice medicine with a reasonable degree of skill and safety for
patients. In this connection the Board may consider repeated acts of a
physician indicating his failure to properly treat a patient and may require
such physician to submit to inquiries or examinations, written or oral, by
members of the Board or by other physicians licensed to practice medicine
in this State, as the Board deems necessary to determine the professional
qualifications of such licensee; licensee.
(12) Promotion of the sale of drugs,
devices, appliances or goods for a patient, or providing services to a patient,
in such a manner as to exploit the patient for financial gain of the physician;
and upon a finding of the exploitation for financial gain, the Board may order
restitution be made to the payer of the bill, whether the patient or the
insurer, by the physician; provided that a determination of the amount of
restitution shall be based on credible testimony in the record; record.
(13) Suspension or revocation of a
license to practice medicine in any other state, or territory of the United
States, or other country; country.
(14) The failure to respond, within a reasonable period of time and in a reasonable manner as determined by the Board, to inquiries from the Board concerning any matter affecting the license to practice medicine.
For any of the foregoing reasons, the Board may deny the issuance of a license to an applicant or revoke a license issued to him, may suspend such a license for a period of time, and may impose conditions upon the continued practice after such period of suspension as the Board may deem advisable, may limit the accused physician's practice of medicine with respect to the extent, nature or location of his practice as the Board deems advisable. The Board may, in its discretion and upon such terms and conditions and for such period of time as it may prescribe, restore a license so revoked or rescinded."
Sec. 2. G.S. 90-2 reads as rewritten:
"§ 90-2. Board of Examiners.
(a) In order to properly
regulate the practice of medicine and surgery, surgery for the
benefit and protection of the people of North Carolina, there is
established a Board of Medical Examiners of the State of North Carolina.
The Board shall consist of eight 12 members.
(1) Seven of the
members shall be duly licensed physicians elected and nominated to the Governor
by the North Carolina Medical Society. The other member shall be a person
chosen by the Governor to represent the public at large.
(2) Of the
remaining five members, all to be appointed by the Governor, at least three
shall be public members and at least one shall be a physician assistant as
defined in G.S. 90-18.1 or a nurse practitioner as defined in G.S.
90-18.2. The A public member shall not be a
health care provider nor the spouse of a health care provider. For
purposes of board membership, 'health care provider' means any licensed health
care professional and any agent or employee of any health care institution,
health care insurer, health care professional school, or a member of any allied
health profession. For purposes of this section, a person enrolled in a
program to prepare him to be a licensed health care professional or an allied
health professional shall be deemed a health care provider. For purposes
of this section, any person with significant financial interest in a health
service or profession is not a public member.
(b) No member appointed to the Board on or after November 1, 1981, shall serve more than two complete consecutive three-year terms, except that each member shall serve until his successor is chosen and qualifies.
(c) In order to establish
regularly overlapping terms, the terms of office of the members currently
serving on the Board shall expire as follows: two on October 31,
1982; two on October 31, 1983; three on October 31, 1986. Terms of Board
members shall expire in direct relation to their date of appointment by the
society; the terms of the two members first appointed shall expire in 1982, and
the terms of the three members last appointed shall expire in 1986. two
on October 31, 1993; four on October 31, 1994; four on October 31, 1995; and
two on October 31, 1996. No initial physician member of the Board may
serve another term until at least three years from the date of expiration of
his current term.
The Governor shall appoint the public member not later
than October 31, 1981.
(d) Any initial or regular member of the Board may be removed from office by the Governor for good cause shown. Any vacancy in the initial or regular physician membership of the Board shall be filled for the period of the unexpired term by the Governor from a list of physicians submitted by the North Carolina Medical Society Executive Council. Any vacancy in the public membership of the Board shall be filled by the Governor for the unexpired term.
(e) The Board of Medical Examiners shall have the power to acquire, hold, rent, encumber, alienate, and otherwise deal with real property in the same manner as any private person or corporation, subject only to approval of the Governor and the Council of State as to the acquisition, rental, encumbering, leasing, and sale of real property. Collateral pledged by the Board for an encumbrance is limited to the assets, income, and revenues of the Board."
Sec. 3. This act is effective upon ratification. The terms of the new appointed positions created by Section 2 of this act shall commence November 1, 1993. The terms of the members serving on the Board as of the effective date of this act shall not be altered as a result of Section 2 of this act.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 30th day of June, 1993.
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Dennis A. Wicker
President of the Senate
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Daniel Blue, Jr.
Speaker of the House of Representatives