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LASIK Surgery Watch’s State Medical Board Initiative
The practice of medicine is not regulated by the federal government, but rather by state medical boards. Therefore, actions of individual physicians which are not in the best interests of patients should be referred to these state boards.
As Lasik Surgery Watch continues to grow, we intend to leverage our membership across America. We seek an individual who will take a leadership position in the area of state medical board reporting. This person will be responsible for assisting individual members who discover illegal or unethical practices in their communities and would like to report these violations to state medical boards.
While each state has their own medical board, regulations and practices of medical boards across the United States tends to be similar. We believe that experiences in one state will assist us in working in other states.
One example of a LASIK patient who has successfully worked with her state medical board is LSW member Natalie Messier. Based on Natalie’s petition, the State of Maine has instructed a Maine LASIK center to cease paying patients for providing referrals. This process should be repeated in all states. It is unethical for surgeons to offer financial incentives for patient referrals, and state medical boards are the government institutions responsible for enforcing this prohibition.
Contact information for each state medical board can be found at this link: http://www.fsmb.org/directory_smb.html .
If you are interested in leading the LSW State Medical Board Initiative nationally, please send an email to [email protected].