AAPS made history by deposing the executive director of the Texas Medical Board on Thursday in Austin. There were many shocking revelations, including this one: the medical director of the TMB resigned about a week ago, barely a year after she was selected amid much fanfare.
The executive director, Mari Robinson, lacks a medical degree, but has the medical director, a physician, work underneath her control and direction. If a medical director disagrees with attorney Mari Robinson’s desire to punish a physician, then Mari Robinson can simply fire the medical director. She said she did not fire this one, but this is the second medical director to quit in three years under Mari Robinson’s rule.
Would a physician ever be allowed to run the state bar? Of course not, yet a lawyer is running the Texas Medical Board, which punishes physicians over silly issues like what a doctor said on an internet blog.
In 2009, AAPS included in its medical board reforms a provision requiring that the executive director be a physician. But the Texas Medical Association blocked those reforms, leaving more than 60,000 Texas physicians vulnerable to the whims of an attorney-executive director lacking in medical training.
It’s like being on the operating table and learning that the surgeon will be an attorney who never went to medical school.
More details from the deposition – including a transcript – will be released in upcoming email alerts. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, tell us what you think about attorneys running state medical boards and tell your state legislators also! Post your comments below or if you would prefer to keep them confidential email them to [email protected].
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