Pennsylvania Code › Title 49 - PROFESSIONAL AND VOCATIONAL STANDARDS › Part I - DEPARTMENT OF STATE › Subpart A - PROFESSIONAL AND OCCUPATIONAL AFFAIRS › Chapter 16 - STATE BOARD OF MEDICINE-GENERAL PROVISIONS › Subchapter E - MEDICAL DISCIPLINARY PROCESS AND PROCEDURES › COMPLAINTS › Section 16.61 - Unprofessional and immoral conduct

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
(a)
						A Board-regulated practitioner who engages in unprofessional or immoral conduct
						is subject to disciplinary action under section 41 of the act (63 P. S. §
													422.41). Unprofessional conduct includes, but
						is not limited to, the following:
(1)
						Revealing personally identifiable facts, obtained as the result of a
						practitioner-patient relationship, without the prior consent of the patient,
						except as authorized or required by statute.
(2) Violating a statute, or a regulation
						adopted thereunder, which imposes a standard for the practice of the healing
						arts as regulated by the Board in this Commonwealth. The Board, in reaching a
						decision on whether there has been a violation of a statute, rule or
						regulation, will be guided by adjudications of the agency or court which
						administers or enforces the standard.
(3) Performing a medical act or treatment
						regimen incompetently or performing a medical act or treatment regimen which
						the Board-regulated practitioner knows or has reason to know that the
						practitioner is not competent to perform.
(4) Unconditionally guaranteeing that a cure
						will result from the performance of medical services or treatment
						regimen.
(5) Advertising of a
						medical business which is intended to or has a tendency to deceive the
						public.
(6) Practicing the healing
						arts fraudulently, or with reckless indifference to the interests of a patient
						on a particular occasion, or with negligence on repeated occasions.
(7) Practicing the healing arts while the
						ability to practice is impaired by alcohol, drugs or physical or mental
						disability.
(8) Knowingly
						permitting, aiding or abetting a person who is not licensed or certified, or
						exempt from license or certification requirements, to perform activities
						requiring a license or certification in a health care practice.
(9) Continuing to practice while the
						Board-regulated practitioner's license or certificate has expired, is not
						registered or is suspended or revoked.
(10) Impersonating another health-care
						practitioner.
(11) Possessing,
						using, prescribing for use or distributing a controlled substance or a legend
						drug in a way other than for an acceptable medical purpose. An acceptable
						experimental purpose is considered an acceptable medical purpose.
(12) Offering, undertaking or agreeing to
						cure or treat a disease by a secret method, procedure, treatment or medicine,
						or the treating, operating or prescribing for a human condition by a method,
						means or procedure which the licensee refuses to divulge to the Board upon
						demand of the Board.
(13) Charging
						a patient or a third-party payor for a medical service or treatment regimen not
						performed. This paragraph does not apply to charging for an unkept office
						visit.
(14) Delegating a medical
						responsibility to a person when the physician knows or has reason to know that
						the person is not qualified by training, experience, license or certification
						to perform the delegated task.
(15)
						Failing to exercise appropriate supervision over a person who is authorized to
						practice only under the supervision of the physician.
(16) Willfully harassing, abusing or
						intimidating a patient.
(17)
						Abandoning a patient. Abandonment occurs when a physician withdraws his
						services after a physician-patient relationship has been established, by
						failing to give notice to the patient of the physician's intention to withdraw
						in sufficient time to allow the patient to obtain necessary medical care.
						Abandonment also occurs when a physician leaves the employment of a group
						practice, hospital, clinic or other health-care facility, without the physician
						giving reasonable notice and under circumstances which seriously impair the
						delivery of medical care to patients.
(18) Failing to make available to the patient
						or to another designated health care practitioner, upon a patient's written
						request, the medical record or a copy of the medical record relating to the
						patient which is in the possession or under the control of the Board-regulated
						practitioner; or failing to complete those forms or reports, or components of
						forms or reports, which are required to be completed by the Board-regulated
						practitioner as a precondition to the reimbursement or direct payment by a
						third party of the expenses of a patient that result from the practice of the
						healing arts. Reasonable fees may be charged for making available copies, forms
						or reports. Prior payment for professional services to which the records
						relate-this does not apply to fees charged for reports-may not be required as a
						condition for making the records available. A Board-regulated practioner may
						withhold information from a patient if, in the reasonable exercise of his
						professional judgment, he believes release of the information would adversely
						affect the patient's health.
(19)
						Violating a provision of this chapter, Chapter 17 or Chapter 18 (relating to
						State Board of Medicine-medical doctors; or State Board of
						Medicine-practitioners other than medical doctors) fixing a standard of
						professional conduct.