Articles
NCMB’s improved outside medical review process
Article updated on 1/7/2025
The Board created a new staff position in fall 2018 to enhance its outside medical review process, with a goal of increasing the number of reviewers available to consult on quality of care cases. As of 2025, the Board has two full-time Quality of Care Case Paralegals and a Quality of Care Team Coordinator. In this Forum article, we've collected answers to clinicians’ most frequently asked questions about providing outside medical reviews.
Q: Why does the Medical Board need outside medical reviewers?
A: Outside reviewers are critical to the Board’s quality of care case review process. The Board relies on its ability to draw on the knowledge and experience of medical experts regarding whether the minimum accepted and prevailing standards of care have been met in investigations and licensing applications that involve quality of medical care provided to patients.
Q: What is the specific service outside medical reviewers provide to the Board?
A: The reviewer’s role is to determine whether the minimum accepted and prevailing standards of care were met at the time of treatment. Reviewers are provided with bookmarked electronic copies of medical records and other relevant documents, which they evaluate. They also receive a worksheet for the case review and provide their opinions to the Board in the form of a written report.
Q: Are outside medical reviewers compensated?
A: Yes. Reviewers are compensated at a rate of $175 per hour for the time spent reviewing records and writing their reports. Time spent on a pre-hearing deposition, preparing to testify at a hearing, and testifying at a hearing is reimbursed in accordance with a separate fee schedule that can be found at the end of the Board’s Expert Reviewer Manual.
Q: May outside medical reviewers remain anonymous or will the clinician under investigation know who reviewed his or her care?
A: The Board maintains the confidentiality of reviewer names and reports submitted by reviewers to the extent allowed by law. Should the case proceed to a stage where a disciplinary or denial hearing is scheduled, the applicant or licensee and their legal representative (if they have one) will be provided with a copy of the reviewer’s report and the reviewer may be asked to testify at a deposition and a hearing.
Q: Am I at risk of being sued for serving as an outside medical reviewer or testifying at a hearing for the Board?
A: North Carolina General Statute § 90-14(f) provides civil immunity for reviewers when their review is provided in good faith and without fraud or malice.
To learn more about what might be required of an outside medical reviewer, check out the Board's Expert Reviewer Manual and listen to the MedBoard Matters podcast about it.
To indicate your interest in providing expert reviews, contact reviewers@ncmedboard.org. The Board is always interested in establishing contact with qualified expert reviewers.
The Board created a new staff position in fall 2018 to enhance its outside medical review process, with a goal of increasing the number of reviewers available to consult on quality of care cases. As of 2025, the Board has two full-time Quality of Care Case Paralegals and a Quality of Care Team Coordinator. In this Forum article, we've collected answers to clinicians’ most frequently asked questions about providing outside medical reviews.
Q: Why does the Medical Board need outside medical reviewers?
A: Outside reviewers are critical to the Board’s quality of care case review process. The Board relies on its ability to draw on the knowledge and experience of medical experts regarding whether the minimum accepted and prevailing standards of care have been met in investigations and licensing applications that involve quality of medical care provided to patients.
Q: What is the specific service outside medical reviewers provide to the Board?
A: The reviewer’s role is to determine whether the minimum accepted and prevailing standards of care were met at the time of treatment. Reviewers are provided with bookmarked electronic copies of medical records and other relevant documents, which they evaluate. They also receive a worksheet for the case review and provide their opinions to the Board in the form of a written report.
Q: Are outside medical reviewers compensated?
A: Yes. Reviewers are compensated at a rate of $175 per hour for the time spent reviewing records and writing their reports. Time spent on a pre-hearing deposition, preparing to testify at a hearing, and testifying at a hearing is reimbursed in accordance with a separate fee schedule that can be found at the end of the Board’s Expert Reviewer Manual.
Q: May outside medical reviewers remain anonymous or will the clinician under investigation know who reviewed his or her care?
A: The Board maintains the confidentiality of reviewer names and reports submitted by reviewers to the extent allowed by law. Should the case proceed to a stage where a disciplinary or denial hearing is scheduled, the applicant or licensee and their legal representative (if they have one) will be provided with a copy of the reviewer’s report and the reviewer may be asked to testify at a deposition and a hearing.
Q: Am I at risk of being sued for serving as an outside medical reviewer or testifying at a hearing for the Board?
A: North Carolina General Statute § 90-14(f) provides civil immunity for reviewers when their review is provided in good faith and without fraud or malice.
To learn more about what might be required of an outside medical reviewer, check out the Board's Expert Reviewer Manual and listen to the MedBoard Matters podcast about it.
To indicate your interest in providing expert reviews, contact reviewers@ncmedboard.org. The Board is always interested in establishing contact with qualified expert reviewers.