By Dana Gentry

Published Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 | 4:36 p.m.

Updated Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2009 | 4:39 p.m.

The president of Nevada’s Board of Medical Examiners, Dr. Charles Held, is fighting back against what he calls “political rhetoric, inflammatory journalism, and outright untruths…” (I’ve posted the news release to the right.)

As one of the inflammatory journalists of whom Dr. Held speaks, allow me to throw some gasoline on this fire.

Dr. Held claims, “The attempts to devise a regulation regarding the use of MAs resulted, not from a Board desire to regulate MAs, but from an inappropriate comparison in the print and broadcast media between the actions of a person practicing medicine without a license and an MA working for and under the supervision of a licensed doctor, and the panic and uncertainty this generated.”

Dr. Held may want to check with Louis Ling, the board’s former executive director, who says he was directed by the board at its August retreat to craft two sets of regulations – one that would allow medical assistants in doctors’ offices to administer medications and another to prohibit medical assistants from performing entire procedures, such as cosmetic fillers. It is the board’s attempt to impose a double standard, not inflammatory journalism, that prompted legitimate questions about selective enforcement.

The person Dr. Held accuses of practicing medicine without a license is medical assistant Betty Guerra, who says she performed delegated tasks at the direction of her supervising physician. Despite Dr. Held’s characterization of Ms. Guerra’s actions, the attorney general has dropped the felony charges against her.

The medical assistant Dr. Held says was working for and under the supervision of a doctor is Monica dela Cruz, the assistant to Dr. Benjamin Rodriguez, a member of the board. Dr. Held should give me a call and I will confidentially give him the names of several patients who received Botox injections from dela Cruz, but never saw Dr. Rodriguez.

We have repeatedly invited Dr. Held to appear on Face to Face but he has declined.