California Board Actions (2021-2023)

Name: California Medical Board Disciplinary Action Statistics
Creator: PlainDoctor
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

California medical-board action counts from the MBC public annual report (2023). Rates use this board's own licensee denominator (not NPPES). FSMB national rollups are cited only for scale.

Last updated: May 2026

California's disciplinary counts come from the MBC annual report published at mbc.ca.gov: 576 actions across 556 cases in 2023, against 150,000 active MD/DO licensees (3.84 per 1,000).

The Medical Board of California publishes physician discipline in its annual report under the Medical Practice Act; California MDs and DOs share this single board, and PlainDoctor cites only the MBC public report - not individual accusation files. License status checks belong on the MBC BreEZe license lookup; a row in this annual tally is not a substitute for that live credential query.

California's 2023 MBC action mix is led by probation (186, 32%), then voluntary surrender (105), then license suspension (94) - 385 of 576 actions (67% in the top 3). The report lists 556 distinct cases for those 576 actions (0.97 cases per action) against 150,000 MD/DO licensees - peer rates on their own denominators: Texas 4.47; Ohio 3.29.

Where this state board sits among covered peers

California ranks 3rd of 10 covered state boards by actions per 1,000 licensees (3.84 in 2023), with probation the largest share at 32% of board actions. In the NPPES directory, licensed psychiatric technician is the most over-indexed specialty at 7.32× the national share (2,245 providers).

3.84
actions / 1,000 licensees (2023): 3rd
of 10 covered boards by rate: 576
board actions in 2023: 24.0%
of covered-state action volume

This comparison uses the 2023 report only; 2022 rows do not carry the same action-type coverage, so no year-over-year claim is made.

California's 3.84 actions / 1,000 is above the covered-board median of 3.06; the next higher board is Texas at 4.47, the next lower is Ohio at 3.29. In 2023, probation accounted for 186 of 576California board actions (32%).

What the MBC report categorizes

California's 2023 MBC report publishes 6 action categories (Probation, Voluntary surrender, License suspension, Practice restriction, License revocation, Public reprimand). Not broken out on this MBC report: monetary fine (see Florida's 2023 breakout). Rare in this corpus: public reprimand.

Distinguishing category on this page: Public reprimand .

California at a glance - 2023

576

Total board actions

556

Distinct cases

3.84

Actions per 1,000 licensees

150,000

Total active licensees

Source: MBC Annual Report. Licensee counts reflect active MD/DO licenses on record at year-end.

Probation

186
Voluntary surrender

105
suspension

94
Practice restriction

71
revocation

62
Public reprimand

58

What this shows Probation leads at 186 actions (32% of 576 total), ahead of voluntary surrender.

California among nearby covered boards

Ranked by actions per 1,000 licensees among the 10 boards with ingested annual-report counts. Showing boards immediately around California (not the full covered list) so each state page carries a different peer window. California sits at 3rd.

#	State board	Actions / 1k	Actions	Year
1	Florida	6.40	480	2023
2	Texas	4.47	344	2023
3	Californiathis page	3.84	576	2023
4	Ohio	3.29	158	2023
5	New York	3.12	312	2023

California NPPES mix: Licensed Psychiatric Technician

Among NPPES providers in California, Licensed Psychiatric Technician is the most over-indexed specialty at 7.32× the national share (2,245 providers) ; next are Rehabilitation Practitioner (4.63×, 11,264), Marriage & Family Therapist (4.43×, 51,414), Licensed Vocational Nurse (4.08×, 10,165). Most under-indexed: Professional Counselor at 0.23× . This is directory composition, not a board-action rate.

Licensed Psychiatric Technician - 2,245 providers (7.32× national share)
Rehabilitation Practitioner - 11,264 providers (4.63× national share)
Marriage & Family Therapist - 51,414 providers (4.43× national share)
Licensed Vocational Nurse - 10,165 providers (4.08× national share)
Day Training/Habilitation Specialist - 4,693 providers (3.43× national share)

California year-over-year trend

Year	Total actions	Licensees	Actions per 1,000
2023	576	150,000	3.84
2022	401	148,000	2.71
2021	270	146,000	1.85

Action-count totals across all canonical action types per year for California. Rate-per-1,000 normalizes for licensee population.

California 2023 - breakdown by action type

Action type	Actions	Cases	% of 2023 actions
Probation	186	180	32.3%
Voluntary surrender	105	102	18.2%
License suspension	94	88	16.3%
Practice restriction	71	68	12.3%
License revocation	62	62	10.8%
Public reprimand	58	56	10.1%

Prior-year totals are in the trend table above; only the latest report year is expanded by action type.

California's 576 board actions in 2023 are 8.9% of the FSMB 2023 national action volume (6,444). Full national mix: state board action trends.

Aggregate California counts only, not an individual determination. Verify a clinician via the MBC public record or methodology for category definitions (Probation, Voluntary surrender, License suspension, Practice restriction, License revocation, Public reprimand).

Source: MBC - State Medical Board Annual Report California Medical Board Disciplinary Action Statistics, 2023 · 2023 Accessed 2026-05-20 Aggregate counts only. To verify any individual provider's current license status, query the state board's public license lookup directly.

More California context on PlainDoctor

California counts from MBC (2023); national context from FSMB U.S. Medical Regulatory Trends. Aggregate only - methodology · board lookup.

Compiled from official public sources by the editorial process.