Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 73 - PROFESSIONS AND VOCATIONS (§§ 73-1-1 — 73-79-1) › Chapter 71 - ACUPUNCTURE PRACTICE ACT (§§ 73-71-1 — 73-71-53) › Section 73-71-33 - Grounds for disciplinary actions

The following acts constitute grounds for which the board may initiate disciplinary actions:
(a)
Attempting to obtain, or renewing a license to practice acupuncture by bribery or misinterpretation;
(b)
Having a license to practice acupuncture revoked, suspended, or otherwise acted against, including the denial of licensure by the licensing authority of another state or territory for reasons that would preclude licensure in this state;
(c)
Being convicted or found guilty, regardless of adjudication, in any jurisdiction of a felony, or a crime of moral turpitude, or a crime that directly relates to acupuncture. For the purposes of this paragraph, a plea of guilty or a plea of nolo contendere accepted by the court shall be considered as a conviction;
(d)
Advertising, practicing, or attempting to practice under a name other than one's own;
(e)
The use of advertising or solicitation that is false or misleading;
(f)
Aiding, assisting, procuring, employing or advertising an unlicensed person to practice acupuncture contrary to this chapter or a rule of the board;
(g)
Failing to perform any statutory or legal obligation placed upon an acupuncture practitioner;
(h)
Making or filing a report that the licensee knows to be false, intentionally or negligently failing to file a report required by state or federal law, willfully impeding or obstructing that filing or inducing another person to do so. Those reports shall include only those that are signed in the capacity of an acupuncture practitioner;
(i)
Exercising coercion, intimidation or undue influence in entering into sexual relations with a patient, or continuing the patient-practitioner relationship with a patient with whom the licensee has sexual relations, if those sexual relations cause the licensee to perform services incompetently. This paragraph shall not apply to sexual relations between acupuncture practitioners and their spouses;
(j)
Making deceptive, untrue or fraudulent misrepresentations in the practice of acupuncture;
(k)
Soliciting patients, either personally or through an agent, through the use of fraud, intimidation or undue influence, or a form of overreaching conduct;
(l)
Failing to keep written medical records justifying the course of treatment of the patient;
(m)
Exercising undue influence on the patient to exploit the patient for financial gain of the licensee or of a third party;
(n)
Being unable to practice acupuncture with reasonable skill and safety to patients by reason of illness or intemperate use of alcohol, drugs, narcotics, chemicals, or any other type of material or as a result of any mental or physical condition;
(o)
Malpractice or the failure to practice acupuncture to that level of care, skill and treatment that is recognized by a reasonably prudent similar practitioner of acupuncture as being acceptable under similar conditions and circumstances;
(p)
Practicing or offering to practice beyond the scope permitted by law or accepting or performing professional responsibilities that the licensee knows or has reason to know that he or she is not qualified by training, experience or certification to perform;
(q)
Delegating professional responsibilities to a person when the licensee delegating those responsibilities knows, or has reason to know, that the person is not qualified by training, experience or licensure to perform them;
(r)
Violating any provision of this chapter, a rule of the board, or a lawful order of the board previously entered in a disciplinary hearing or failing to comply with a lawfully issued subpoena of the board;
(s)
Conspiring with another to commit an act, or committing an act, that coerces, intimidates or precludes another licensee from lawfully advertising or providing his or her services;
(t)
Fraud or deceit, or gross negligence, incompetence or misconduct in the operation of a course of study;
(u)
Failing to comply with state, county or municipal regulations or reporting requirements relating to public health and the control of contagious and infectious disease;
(v)
Failing to comply with any rule of the board relating to health and safety, including, but not limited to, sterilization of equipment and the disposal of potentially infectious materials;
(w)
Incompetence, gross negligence or other malpractice in the practice of acupuncture;
(x)
Aiding the unlawful practice of acupuncture;
(y)
Fraud or dishonesty in the application or reporting of any test for disease;
(z)
Failure to report, as required by law, or making false or misleading report of, any contagious or infectious disease;
(aa)
Failure to keep accurate patient records; or
(bb)
Failure to permit the board or its agents to enter and inspect acupuncture premises and equipment as set by rules promulgated by the board.
Laws, 2009, ch. 447, § 17, eff. 7/1/2009.
Reenacted without change by Laws, 2013, ch. 465, HB 1162, 17, eff. 7/1/2013.