Our law firm’s primary practice area is representing professional licensees and healthcare licensees before the various licensing agencies within the state of California and its local or municipal levels of government. Most of these matters are “litigated” – if at all – through the administrative hearing process. Sometimes, the administrative Read more…
On November 7, 2016, Julianne Allen, Senior Paralegal at Simas & Associates, Ltd., guest lectured at American River College. The students were part of the Paralegal Program and the course was “Administrative Law and Procedure” taught by Julia Brynelson, Adjunct Professor. “I was invited to speak and jumped at the chance,” Read more…
Mitigation evidence, in the civil lawsuit realm, is evidence used to thwart a potential affirmative defense of the failure to limit ones damages. This evidence is done to demonstrate to the opposing party and/or adjudicator of your dispute that once you became aware of the injury, damage, or problem, you Read more…
The National Practitioner Data Bank (“NPDB”) was created by Congress and contains information related to “certain adverse actions related to health care practitioners, entities, providers, and suppliers.”[1] The law determines what types of adverse actions are reportable to the NPDB, however, most reporting entities error on the side of over-reporting Read more…
Professional licensees and healthcare-related licensees in the state of California can have discipline imposed on their licenses for misconduct. The “misconduct” for which license discipline is under the vague and amorphous “substantially-related to the profession” standard that is not the subject of this blog entry. When these licensees face discipline, Read more…
On October 8 and 9, 2016, Steven L. Simas, founder and owner of Simas & Associates, Ltd. spoke at the 2016 Annual Conference for the California Physical Therapy Association (CPTA). The conference was held at the Santa Clara Convention Center and had over several hundred physical therapists in attendance. This year’s conference featured Read more…
States are cracking down on harm to animals. California is no different: see Fines for Pet-Patient Harm to Increase. However, there is a big emphasis in making Veterinarians mandatory reporters of harm. By mandatory reporter, this means imposing an affirmative duty upon Veterinarians, Registered Veterinarian Technicians, and Veterinary Support staff Read more…
On January 1, 2014, AB 1000 went into effect. The Direct Access bill provided, among other things, authorization for a patient to directly access physical therapy services up to 45 days or 12 visits before requiring a physician to approve the plan of care for the patient. The physical therapy Read more…
The practice of veterinary dentistry in California is governed by Section 4826 of the Business and Professions Code and Section 2037 of the California Code of Regulations. The laws are clear in stating that performing dentistry upon an animal is the practice of veterinary medicine and needs to be done Read more…
Late last year, we brought to your attention the Veterinary Medical Board’s effort to increase fines associated with any harm caused to animal patients – by both licensees and unlicensed persons. Well, that amendment passed with no noted objections, requests for clarification, or further amendments proposed during the statutory regulatory Read more…