Anonymous Complaints to State Licensing Boards by Third Parties

Reaffirmed June 2021

Originally approved June 2015

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) believes several problems are created when state medical licensing boards permit anonymous reporting of complaints about physicians by individuals who were not directly aggrieved by the physician:

• Allows third parties not directly associated with the patient care (such as a plaintiff attorney anonymously reporting physicians prior to suing them) to file such a claim. 
• Leads to difficulty in fully investigating the complaints. Anonymous reporting does not give an accused physician an adequate, fair opportunity to contest the accuracy of the reporting.

ACEP is strongly opposed to anonymous complaints made to state medical licensing boards from third parties not directly involved in the episode of care.