William Culbert| Guest column

State Rep. John Ragan, 33rd District,is misguided in his efforts to usurp the authority of the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners in its efforts to protect Tennesseans from COVID-19. Despite his stated motivations, he has contradictory political views and legislative precedents.

The General Assembly may grant rule-making authority to the TBME, but the 71 medical boards that exist in every state and territory are established by the U.S. Constitution with a federal mandate to protect the public from the unprofessional, improper, unlawful, or incompetent practice of medicine … and gives authority to a medical board to enforce the acts provisions.

Ragans justification for his threat to have the Government Operations Committee disband the board is based on protecting the autonomy of physicians and their patients and the lack of regulatory specificity toward physicians that purvey misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19.

Rep. Ragan has advocated using taxpayer dollars to study the appropriateness of treating COVID-19 with drugs like a deworming medicine for horses with no anti-viral properties. This conflicts with the recommendation of major medical groups and disregards the significance of a highly effective anti-viral pill that has recently received approval for emergency use from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee.

In his House Bill 578 regarding gender identity, Ragan expressly undermines the autonomy of the physician, minor patient, and the responsible parent by requiring a second medical opinion from a different medical specialist with no specific training in endocrinology that is often expensive and difficult to obtain. Without meeting this requirement, the bill prohibits use of hormone therapy in these pre-pubertal patients despite medical assurances of its safety and reversibility.

Ragan says this legislation was drafted to protect Tennessees children, but he rejects Medicaid expansion, forgoing a million dollars a day in federal subsidies for direct health benefits for tens of thousands of the states children.

There are very few rules in medicine, but there are a lot of practice guidelines. They frequently have minor inconsistencies, and good physicians routinely operate within this penumbra. Unfortunately, the practices of some doctors are more motivated by social media, political news programs, or religious doctrine that do not represent good medicine.

Because what these physicians say matters, their opinions can be particularly dangerous, and medical boards may need to use broad regulatory terms like misinformation or disinformation to rein them in.

Even when regulators have known that physicians are addicted to drugs or alcohol or they over prescribe opioids, it has been difficult to stop them from practicing medicine. This is rapidly changing, but potentially more dangerous for patients are the doctors that knowingly reject the quality medical practice standards of their peers. They dont need more protection from politicians.

Physician William Culbert lives in Oak Ridge and has a practice in Clinton.

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Politician oversteps his authority with COVID-19 - Oak Ridger

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