Becker's ASC Review

60 HEALTHCARE NEWS Physicians who post COVID-19 vaccine misinformation could lose license, panel says By Jackie Drees T he Federation of State Medical Boards warned July 29 that physi- cians and other healthcare professionals could be at risk of losing their medical licenses if they spread COVID-19 vaccine misinfor- mation on social media, online and in the media. FSMB, a nonprofit that represents all U.S. state medical boards, said any clinicians who create or spread vaccine misinformation or disinforma- tion risk disciplinary action by state medical boards, including suspen- sion or revocation of their medical license, according to a statement emailed to Becker's Hospital Review. "Due to their specialized knowledge and training, licensed physicians possess a high degree of public trust and therefore have a powerful platform in society, whether they recognize it or not," FSMB said. "ey also have an ethical and professional responsibility to practice medicine in the best interests of their patients and must share information that is factual, scientifically grounded and consensus-driven for the betterment of public health." FSMB has not yet formally defined "misinformation" or "disinforma- tion" in its policy, but the organization's ethics committee is studying the issues of physician misinformation and disinformation and plans to provide more guidance at a later date, an FSMB spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Becker's. "However, we currently view misinformation as sharing or distributing verifiably false information," the spokesperson said. "We define disin- formation as sharing or distributing information that the distributor knows is false." While FSMB has not formed a recommendation yet for the definitions of misinformation and disinformation, state and territorial medical boards may use various terms, such as "professional misconduct" or "ethics violation," in their own procedures to address concerns sur- rounding misinformation and disinformation, FSMB said. In July, President Joe Biden called out social media platforms like Facebook for allowing vaccine misinformation to spread on its services, claiming that disinformation about the vaccines is "killing people," ac- cording to CNBC. FSMB's statement comes as the country grapples with an uptick in CO- VID-19 cases and hospitalizations. As of July 29, national cases are up 439.7 percent from the lowest average in June 2021, and just 49 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated, e New York Times reported. About 97 percent of hospitalized COVID-19 patients aren't vaccinated, according to the report. n America's wealthiest physician billionaire: 9 things to know about HCA's co-founder By Alan Condon T homas Frist Jr., MD, co-founder and the major shareholder of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, has a net worth of $15.7 billion — the highest among nine physician billionaires listed on the Forbes annual list of the richest people in the world for 2021. Nine things to know about Dr. Frist and HCA: 1. Dr. Frist received a medical degree from Wash- ington University in St. Louis before becoming a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force. 2. In 1968, he co-founded HCA with his father, Thomas Frist Sr., MD, a cardiologist and internist, and Jack Massey, an investor who owned Kentucky Fried Chicken, according to Bloomberg. 3. One year later, HCA filed its initial public offer- ing. It had 11 hospitals at the time, but increased its portfolio to 26 facilities by the end of the year. 4. HCA was one of the earliest for-profit healthcare operators in the U.S. The company now includes 185 hospitals and more than 2,000 sites of care across 20 U.S. states and the U.K. 5. In 1977, Dr. Frist was appointed president of HCA. Ten years later, he became the company's chair and CEO. 6. Dr. Frist continued to serve as chair of HCA after the company merged with Columbia in 1994 and became vice chair after the HealthTrust merger in 1995. 7. In 2006, Dr. Frist helped lead the privatization of HCA for $31.6 billion, which was the largest lever- aged buyout in history at the time, according to Bloomberg. About five years later, HCA sold shares in an initial public offering. 8. Last year, HCA reported $51.5 billion in revenue and had 121 freestanding outpatient surgery cen- ters in its network as of Dec. 31, 2020, down from 123 at the end of 2019. 9. Dr. Frist and his father were the first father-son combination to be inducted into the Tennessee Healthcare Hall of Fame in 2019. n

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