Recently, the Medical Board of California reported on the efficacy of its self-styled “death certificate project.”  As you’ve likely heard, the Medical Board’s project uses California data regarding deaths to identify physicians associated with opioid prescriptions to deceased patients.  The Medical Board’s purpose is to investigate whether physicians violated the law.  Since its inception, 23% of the Medical Board’s death certificate investigations have resulted in disciplinary action taken—either an Accusation filed by the Board against a licensee or some prior action taken by the Board for prescribing practice violations.  The Board’s report on disciplinary statistics can be found here(link is external).

If you have received information to suggest that you are being investigated for opioid prescribing practices, please seek the advice of an attorney experienced in the defense of physician licenses.