The Texas Medical Board has indefinitely suspended the license of a Palestine doctor after he refused to abide the Gov. Greg Abbott’s COVID-era mask mandate in 2020.
Dr. Eric Hensen, an ear, nose, and throat doctor, has been fighting the TMB for years over the policy. In 2021, the TMB first sent him a letter stating he violated Abbott’s mask order in 2020 after a patient turned him in, and required him to produce medical records and office policies.
“This arbitrary ridiculous order by the Texas Medical Board required him to put masks on all his ears, nose and throat patients, who already have difficulty breathing,” explained Hensen’s lawyer, Paul Davis. “So, bottom line, the Texas Medical Board is taking a doctor’s license in the state of Texas, shutting down his practice, because he refused to do harm to his patients.”
The board penalized Hensen with a “remediation plan” that involved a $500 fine, continuing medical education, a jurisprudence test, and other additional requirements that Hensen was unable to maintain, under threat of being reprimanded on a national database.
Davis called the remediation agreement “ridiculous,” saying Hensen “was forced to sign this remediation agreement and impose all sorts of excessive requirements that he was unable to comply with.”
Hensen says he will be immediately filing a lawsuit against the TMB for pulling his medical license.
“Let the fight begin,” Hensen told Texas Scorecard.
The Texas Medical Board consists of 12 physician members and seven public members appointed for a six-year term by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.
As of publishing, the Texas Medical Board did not respond to a request for comment.
