The State Board of Medical Licensure executive committee voted to close its public meeting and enter executive session to consider a pending application for a permanent medical license and related waiver requests.

Paul, a staff member, told the committee that the application before them “neither been granted nor denied” and recommended handling the matter in executive session under the public‑body investigative‑proceedings exception. “Applications and the information contained in them related documentation is all confidential under Mississippi law,” Paul said.

The committee’s published agenda listed three matters: (1) an application for a permanent medical license to be considered in executive session, (2) a Zoom appearance by Theodore Filman requesting an exception to the 20, 80 and 75‑mile rule, and (3) a request by Dr. Gerisco (identified in the agenda as Joseph Gerisco) for an exception to licensure requirements. A member moved to close the meeting to consider whether to go into executive session; the motion was seconded and members voted “Aye” to enter executive session. The meeting record does not list individual vote names or a numerical tally.

Committee members and staff discussed logistics for the closed meeting, including whether the remote Zoom feed should be disabled and that participants not invited into executive session would need to step out. At one point a committee member told Dr. Sokolov, the subject of the first case, that the committee would need to hear from him in executive session and that those invited could attend.

The committee took formal action only on the procedural step of entering executive session; no public deliberations or outcomes on the underlying licensure application or the waiver requests were made on the public record. Paul cited Mississippi law and the investigatory exception as the basis for confidentiality. The agenda items remain pending; further action, discussion and any formal decisions will occur in the closed session or on a future public record if and when the committee makes a public decision.

The committee did not provide a public vote tally or state a date for when substantive rulings on the application or the waiver requests would be announced.