Integrative Physicians Disciplined by State Medical Licensing Authorities Bring Lawsuits!

A group of four physicians has been disciplined by six separate state medical licensing authorities for “conveying valid medical information that dissented from what a private nonprofit organization would term the prevailing scientific consensus.” These doctors are now suing that private non-profit organization, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), as well as the medical boards that disciplined them at the direction of the FSMB. All four doctors, Dr. Mary Kelly Sutton, Dr. John Humiston, Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, and Dr. Mark Brody, commonly integrate non-standard medical treatments in their medical practices. Their “integrative medicine” practices bring together conventional and unconventional approaches in a coordinated way, with an emphasis on treating the whole person rather than just one organ system.

So, who shut them down and why?

For many years, state medical boards have persecuted and shut down physicians who used innovative approaches to health care including treatment methods that may not be part of the conventional standards of care but that have shown reliable or significant success.

Why would the state boards discipline these doctors? Because state laws say that doctors can be disciplined for going outside of the conventional and acceptable standard of care. But the medical community itself sets these standards of care, which are supported by experts and research in the field, and upheld by the state medical boards.

Do the standards of care ever change? Yes. But research shows that it takes approximately 17 years for standards to eventually change with new evidence and become accepted.

How does a private nonprofit corporation called the Federation of State Medical Boards have an impact on what is deemed the medical standard of care?

One wonders. The organization calls itself the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), although it has no state-delegated authority over physicians. The title itself is misleading. In the court documents for the four physicians, the Complaint begins by stating:

On April 30, 2022, Defendant Federation of State Medical Boards, Inc. (“FSMB”), the umbrella nongovernmental organization of all the physician licensing agencies in the fifty United States and their overseas territories, kneecapped scientific progress in the medical field by banning every licensed physician in the country from publicly disagreeing with what the FSMB’s national leadership considers to be the medical field’s prevailing scientific consensus.

Now, how in the world did a private corporation become: “the umbrella nongovernmental organization of all the physician licensing agencies in the fifty United States and their overseas territories?”

FSMB sees complementary and alternative medicine as a risk to public health.

FSMB has a history of viewing complementary and alternative medicine as a risk to public health. In the past, the organization included such faculty as Dr. Tim Gorski who served as President of the Greater Dallas-Fort Worth Council Against Health Fraud and on the Board of Directors of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF), a now defunct non-profit organization. NCAHF’s mission statement was focused on health fraud, misinformation, and quackery as public health problems. In his biography for the Institute for Science and Medicine, another non-profit for which he is a fellow, Dr. Gorski appears to take pride in “gauging” the use of “complementary and alternative medicine”:

Dr. Gorski took on the important task of revealing the many flaws in various surveys gauging the use of “complementary and alternative medicine” (“CAM”) practices. These surveys, which misrepresented and greatly inflated the value placed on such practices to the public, were being used to legitimize unscientific practices and advance public funding for them. Dr Gorski was also a leading critic of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy set up in President Clinton’s administration. Dr Gorski has testified before the US Senate on the subject of medical quackery. He served as a consultant on “CAM” for the Federation of State Medical Boards.

Dr. Gorsky appears to believe firmly that complementary and alternative medicine is nothing but quackery.

We can understand why FSMB might want to have one of their member physicians sit on a state medical board in a particular state in order to influence a board’s policy leanings. But currently it is said that FSMB not only has individual physicians as members, but also entire medical boards, e.g., the Texas Medical Board (paragraph 128 in the complaint). How this nonprofit ever got to the current place as to think they can influence and take over governmental agency policies in medical boards is beyond comprehension. And how could a governmental agency state board and its members, appointed by the Governor, itself become a member of a private non-profit and agree to the axioms of a non-profit corporation?

Plaintiffs’ requests for relief including for the end to censorship.

The Plaintiff brief includes 489 paragraphs of background and detailed reasons for their lawsuit. In addition, in their request for relief that “the Defendant medical boards restore Plaintiff physicians’ licenses to practice medicine in their respective states to their status quo ante prior to the discipline complained of,” is included a request as follows:

c) enjoin Defendant medical boards from applying the FSMB Censorship Policy to their states’ medical practice laws.

NHFC and NHFA applaud these brave physicians for piercing the heart of a lengthy history of persecution against holistic and complementary and alternative health care doctors and practitioners.

Over the years, NHFC has responded to the persecution of MDs by drafting new laws that describe how a physician can go outside of the standard of care under certain circumstances and with full disclosure.

NHFC has drafted a Model Expanded Health Care Practice Act and has focused on providing this model law language and educating consumers about their rights. NHFA’s concentration is on grassroots lobbying and lobbying for laws that protect consumer options.

NHFA attorneys are available to help state groups in drafting, filing, and moving an Expanded Health Care Practice bill through the legislative process in their state. Email us at info.nhfa@nationalhealthfreedom.org.

We are grateful for the courage of these physicians to defend medical options that consumers want and need. We look forward to their success.