Texas Medical Board: Doctor oversight, transparency law half implemented a year later

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Texas Medical Board said it's now halfway to fully implementing a physician oversight and transparency law that took effect a year ago this month.

The law -- which requires stricter scrutiny over Texas doctors and more public notification when they're disciplined -- was directly sparked by KXAN's "Still Practicing" investigations.

"I would say the implementation is going well," said TMB Deputy Executive Director of Medical Board Operations Chris Palazola. "You could estimate about 50% of our physicians [are] now enrolled in the National Practitioner Data Bank Continuous Query. And we're close to 50% of our licensees being in the fingerprinting database."

The law is being implemented on a rolling basis when physicians apply for or renew their medical licenses.

"It should be completed by around this time next year," said TMB Communications Officer Spencer Miller-Payne. "Just to clarify, we have fingerprinted approximately half of the physicians that were not already fingerprinted. So overall we have a majority of Texas physicians in the fingerprint system."

KXAN's "Still Practicing" investigations previously revealed nearly 50 doctors whose licenses were suspended or revoked in other states were practicing in Texas with clean records.

KXAN also discovered some doctors the TMB deemed a "threat" to public safety were still allowed to treat patients.

Under the new law, physician profiles on the TMB website must be updated to disclose disciplinary actions within 10 business days. The NPDB Continuous Query immediately notifies the TMB when a physician is disciplined out-of-state.

KXAN previously reported it would take two years for the law to take full effect, something that continues to concern patient advocates.

“The serious issues that were uncovered in your original investigative reporting made it very, very, very clear that patients were at risk,” Dallas medical malpractice attorney Kay Van Wey told KXAN last year. “Texas patients will suffer while the Texas Medical Board is taking its sweet time implementing the new law.”

During the last legislative session, House Bill 1998 cleared the legislature with bipartisan support. It was introduced by Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch, after she watched KXAN's "Still Practicing" investigations in early 2022. She is now running for Congress.

The bill was sponsored by Republican Sen. Bob Hall of Edgewood, who invited KXAN to testify about our findings, and praised the legislation as a way to increase transparency, especially when it comes to physician discipline records.

Earlier this year, KXAN's findings received national attention when our investigations were highlighted on "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" on Max.