The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 26 : Professions and Occupations

Chapter 023 : Medicine

Subchapter 002 : Board of Medical Practice

• § 1372. Hearing panel

  (a) Composition of hearing panel.

  (1) The Executive Director may designate a hearing panel constituting less than a quorum of the Board to conduct hearings that would otherwise be heard by the full Board. A hearing panel shall consist of at least three members, including at least one physician member of the Board and at least one public member of the Board. No member of the hearing panel shall have been a member of the investigative committee that reviewed the matter at the investigative stage. A party may move to disqualify a member of a hearing panel due to a conflict of interest.

  (2) If there is an insufficient number of members to serve on a hearing panel by reason of disqualification, resignation, vacancy, or necessary absence, the Commissioner of Health may, at the request of the Board, appoint ad hoc members to serve on the hearing panel for that matter only.

  (b) Time and notice of hearing.

  (1) The Executive Director or a hearing officer shall set a time for the evidentiary hearing as soon as convenient following the determination by the investigative committee that an evidentiary hearing is warranted, subject to the discovery needs of the parties as established in any prehearing or discovery conference or in any orders regulating discovery and depositions, or both, but no earlier than 30 days after service of the charge upon the individual complained against. A party may file motions to extend the time of the hearing for good cause.

  (2) The Executive Director shall issue a notice of the evidentiary hearing on the charges, which notice shall specify the time and place of the hearing and shall notify the individual complained against that he or she may file with the Executive Director a written response within 20 days of the date of service. The notice shall also notify the individual complained against that a record of the proceeding will be kept, that he or she will have the right to inspect and copy information as set forth in section 1371 of this chapter, and that he or she will have the opportunity to appear personally and to have counsel present, with the right to produce witnesses and evidence on his or her own behalf, to cross-examine witnesses testifying against him or her, and to examine such documentary evidence as may be produced against him or her.

  (c) Hearing panel report. Within 60 days after holding an evidentiary hearing under this section, unless the Board grants an extension, the hearing panel shall provide a written report of its findings of fact and its recommendations to the full Board, with a transcript of the evidence. (Added 2019, No. 126 (Adj. Sess.), § 1.)