In this subtitle, “health occupations board” means a board authorized to issue a license or certificate under this article.

After consultation with the Secretary and to the extent permitted by existing administrative and fiscal resources, each health occupations board shall establish a disciplinary subcommittee. To the extent deemed practicable by each board, a disciplinary subcommittee shall: Be responsible for the investigation of complaints; Determine whether the health occupations board should bring charges against a licensee or certificate holder; and Participate in preadjudication case resolution conferences resulting from the charges.

Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, a health occupations board may not bring charges against a licensee or certificate holder based solely on events contained in a complaint the board receives more than 6 years after: The day the complainant actually discovered the facts that form the basis of the complaint; or The day when a reasonable person exercising due diligence should have discovered the facts that form the basis of the complaint. This section does not apply to a complaint based on: Criminal convictions or sexual misconduct or other similar boundary violations; Reciprocal discipline matters; Ongoing substance abuse; Fraudulent concealment of material information; or Acts that occur while a patient is a minor.

If a statute authorizes a health occupations board to use a system of peer review in standard of care cases and the peer reviewer or peer reviewers determine that there has been a violation of a standard of care, the board shall provide the licensee or certificate holder under investigation: An opportunity to review the final peer review report; and At least 10 business days after the report was sent to the licensee or certificate holder to provide the board with a written response. If a health occupations board receives a written response to a final peer review report, the board shall consider both the report and response before taking any action. Except as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection, health occupations boards and disciplinary panels may not reprimand a licensee or certificate holder, place a licensee or certificate holder on probation, or suspend or revoke the license of a licensee or the certificate of a certificate holder solely on the basis of the licensee’s or certificate holder’s use of a diagnostic evaluation or treatment of a patient that is integrative, complementary, alternative, or nonconventional, including in the treatment of Lyme disease or tick–borne illnesses. This subsection may not be construed to release a licensee or certificate holder from the duty to exercise a professional standard of care when evaluating and treating a patient’s medical condition.

As an alternative to a formal hearing, each health occupations board may establish a program for licensees or certificate holders who commit a single standard of care violation. A program established under this section shall provide training, mentoring, or other forms of remediation as determined by the health occupations board. A health occupations board may refer a licensee to the program.

Each health occupations board shall adopt specific sanctioning guidelines, including: A range of sanctions that is based on historical data or a normative process for each type of violation; and A list of mitigating and aggravating circumstances that may be used to decide if a sanction falls within or outside the established range of sanctions. Sanctioning guidelines adopted under this section shall: Conform to a general framework or incorporate a common set of elements; and Be used as a guide for sanctioning licensees and certificate holders in formal and informal proceedings. To the extent a health occupations board departs from the sanctioning guidelines adopted under this section, the board shall state its reasons. A departure from the guidelines alone is not grounds for any hearing or appeal of any board action.

Each health occupations board shall post on the board’s Web site each final, public order for a disciplinary sanction issued to a licensee or certificate holder.

The Secretary shall monitor the timeliness of complaint resolution for each health occupations board.

Each health occupations board shall collaborate with the Office of the Attorney General to make guidelines available to the public concerning the separate roles for assistant attorneys general as counsel and prosecutor for the board. Noncompliance with the guidelines made available under this section may not be used as grounds for any hearing or appeal of any board action.