California's recently enacted AB 2098 bars doctors from providing "treatment or advice" "to a patient" "related to COVID-19" when that treatment or advice includes (1) "false information" (2) "that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus" (3) "contrary to the standard of care." The law makes such treatment or advice "unprofessional sanctioned," for which doctors can be disciplined by disciplinary authorities. The law is limited to speech to particular patients; it doesn't apply to speech to the public at large.
Yesterday's decision by Judge Fred Slaughter (C.D. Cal.) in McDonald v. Lawson held that this statute was likely constitutional, on the grounds that it fits within the traditional regulation of doctors' professional conduct:
[California law has long] permitted licenses to be refused or revoked for unprofessional conduct. California courts have found such "unprofessional conduct" to include, in some circumstances, a medical practitioner's speech to patients. See, e.g., Fuller v. Bd. of Med. Exam'rs, 14 Cal. App. 2d 734, 740-41 (1936), abrogated on other grounds as recognized by Hughes v. Bd. of Architectural Exam'rs, 17 Cal....
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (WSMV) - A Tennessee doctor has pleaded guilty to committing millions of dollars’ worth of Medicare fraud through her Brentwood optometry practice. Helen Boerman, 48, pleaded guilt...