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Board orders submission to NPDB and votes to assess $13,961 in fees in Esslinger matter
Summary
After reviewing a hearing officer’s amended order and competing legal views about NPDB reporting, the Nevada State Board of Osteopathic Medicine approved adopting the order and modified it to assess $13,961 in legal and hearing-related fees against Dr. Robert Esslinger; the motion passed with one no vote.
The Nevada State Board of Osteopathic Medicine voted to adopt a hearing officer’s amended order nunc pro tunc related to Robert Esslinger, D.O., and modified the order to assess $13,961.00 in legal and hearing-related fees against him, with payment due within 90 days.
Mont Tanner, attorney for Dr. Esslinger, asked the Board to submit the hearing officer’s order along with Senate Bill 336 and a July 2018 letter from Dr. Fong to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) to reflect the current legal framework. Tanner said Dr. Esslinger had practiced in Reno "for 30 to 40 years without any prior disciplinary issues or patient complaints," and that the reporting requirement was an unexpected consequence of the 2022 settlement. Board Counsel Micheline Fairbank responded that "reporting the disciplinary action to the NPDB was not optional" under federal rules (45 CFR Part 60) and that the Board has authority under NRS 622A.300 to recover reasonable attorney fees and costs.
The Board debated two separate issues—whether to submit the materials to the NPDB and whether to recover fees—and resolved them in separate actions. Board President Carla Perlotto framed the choice as both a compliance and fiscal stewardship issue. A motion to adopt the amended order and modify it to assess $13,961 in fees passed with one opposition from Dr. Billie Casse; the Board implementation language included a 90-day payment deadline.
