Making government work through your state medical board and elected representatives

Meetings of state medical boards are public meetings (open to the public) and should be attended by those people with a stake in health care. That's just about everyone, but it particularly applies to doctors and elected officials (and their staff). Doctors and their patients are the ultimate stakeholders. Elected officials should attend from time to time either in their roles as representatives of a constituent or in their roles of providing oversight. Their obligations to constituents require the legislator to make sure the process works as it is supposed to work. State agencies instruct legislators "not to interfere in a particular case", but that's wrong. They must 'interfere' enough to ensure that the process is fair.

An elected legislator takes an oath to defend the Constitution, not a state agency. It's the Constitution that protects the people from oppression by the state.

Those testifying before their state medical board will probably be asked to identify a topic in advance. They should become familiar with the state's Medical Practice Act.

Elected legislators can assist in reporting violations of the open government laws of a state agency to the Texas Attorney General. An expressed interest by your elected legislator can do wonders to improve TMB compliance with the law.

The TMB is an agency of the Executive Branch, which is overseen by the governor. As part of the checks and balances provided by our constitution and republican form of government, the TMB is also overseen by the legislature.

Government employees frequently try to escape responsibility for doing their jobs by saying things like "that's his job, not mine". They may direct you to someone else and then 'lose interest', particularly if they were never interested in the first place.

Lawyers have convinced legislators and their staff falsely that once a lawyer is retained, the legislator is somehow released of responsibility. This removes public oversight and is a major reason lawyers are so crooked. The framers of the constitution had no intention of letting private lawyers with their own personal agenda interfere with the workings of government. When have you ever seen a private attorney try to facilitate the workings of government? Lawyers actually threaten legislators with prosecution for the unauthorized practice of law for giving "legal advice". When it works to a lawyer's benefit, almost anything is 'legal advice'; when it works against a lawyer's personal agenda, the same thing is not. Weigh everything a lawyer says because they frequently mislead.

Without oversight of government functioning by elected representatives, we have taxation and other government oppression without representation.

If the Texas Medical Board cared one whit about the public health, they would step in when another state agency (in my case, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Office of the Texas Attorney General, through the Wharton County DA) starts beating up one of its licensee's. They should do this because they care about the rights of the doctor, but even more because they care about the doctor's patients. The failure of a state medical board in that regard should be called into account by the legislature, operating through oversight committees, such as the Texas House Committee on Public Health and the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.

The average citizen should develop access to the oversight process through his own elected state representative and senator. A senator or representative who is serious about his oath to defend the constitution will facilitate citizen oversight of government. The senator or representative should NOT take his directions from the executive branch (ie the state agency). His loyalty should be to his constituent. Any other loyalties are a conflict of interest.

If a citizen is seeking protection from an oppressive or unresponsive state agency, he might look to any of several sources:

1. The Texas Department of Public Safety is an agency of this state created to provide public safety services to those people in the state of Texas by enforcing laws, administering regulatory programs, managing records, educating the public, and managing emergencies, both directly and through interaction with other agencies.

2. Direct contact with a board member of the agency. It is very difficult to contact a medical board member in Texas, and this deprives Texans of a way to make government work.

3. Contact with his own elected legislator. The staff of elected officials don't know all the answers and should be willing to learn along with the constituent. Their obligations and loyalties must always be to the constituent. When a staff person doesn't know the answer or understand a process, the constituent should be able to access the legislator himself. Be on guard that the staff person may be getting directions from another staff person who is no more knowledgeable OR from the state agency itself which has an inherent conflict of interest in hiding its oppression or unresponsiveness.

4. A citizen advocate or watchdog organization such as Texas Medical Board Watch.

This is also posted on scribd. View my other documents there.


Making Government Work Through Your Medical Board and Elected Representatives

Check out Medscape > Physician Connect > Non-clinical discussions > Open Forum > The Disruptive Physician

and

Jesus Rodriguez-Aguero MD v Texas Medical Board