A state board this week reinstated the medical license of a Waterville doctor who had been suspended for issuing vaccine exemption letters to patients he did not see or examine and for which he did not keep records, according to state regulators.
The state Board of Osteopathic Licensure announced Dr. Paul Gosselin will be on probation for a year. Gosselin runs the Patriots Health practice at 325-D Kennedy Memorial Drive in Waterville.
The board suspended Gosselin from practice in November after it determined he was spreading “misinformation” about COVID-19, and had issued questionable exemption letters before a Nov. 1 vaccination deadline went into effect for certain Maine workers.
Dr. Paul Gosselin Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal
A letter outlining sanctions for Gosselin, dated Wednesday, said the board held hearings April 14, May 12 and June 9, and a majority of the board members found Gosselin had issued vaccine exemption letters stating he had conducted evaluations of patients when he actually had not.
Gosselin also did not obtain their medical records, consult with their primary care providers or consider guidance published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and federal Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the board determined.
The board ordered Gosselin to obtain 10 hours of continuing education on medical decision-making, and 10 hours of continuing education on medical documentation, which may be counted toward his biennial continuing medical education requirement.
During his probation, Gosselin cannot issue vaccine exemption letters, and he must pay the $1,000 cost of the hearings, the board decided. The order is signed by board Chair Melissa Michaud.
A detailed explanation of why the board decided as it did was not available Thursday. Susan Strout, the board’s executive secretary, said the board is scheduled to meet July 14, after which it is expected to post its full decision on the board’s website. A court reporter took notes at the hearings, which are used in developing a final report.
Gosselin’s lawyer, F. Ron Jenkins, said Thursday the outcome was a victory for his client.
“This case started out as a witch hunt against a doctor alleged to be spreading ill-defined ‘COVID-19 misinformation’ and posing an immediate threat of harm to the public,” Jenkins wrote in an email. “That story, published widely around the state and country, has now been shown to be bogus. But the outcome is also a victory for free speech and physician autonomy in Maine.
“The board now understands that it will meet stiff resistance every millimeter of the way if it unjustly targets other doctors for expressing COVID-19 dissent, including reasoned skepticism about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 injections in the face of endless viral mutations.”
The case the board had been considering against Gosselin was narrowed in December to focus on 12 exemption letters he had issued in late October, shifting away from mention of COVID-19 science or Gosselin’s beliefs about how to best treat the virus.
During a public meeting on Zoom, Gosselin said in April he did not take standard steps to gather information about medical history and previous ailments before issuing letters recommending health care and front-line workers be exempted from the state’s vaccination mandate.
Gosselin testified he did not keep records on those who sought vaccine exemption letters, never solicited a medical history and did not require or seek medical records corroborating their assertions of past ailments that made vaccination risky or inadvisable. Jenkins had argued Gosselin was not required to take those steps because the people seeking letters were not actually his patients.
Jenkins also argued the board unfairly targeted Gosselin because the doctor resisted accepting the broader medical community’s conclusions about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccinations. The suspension of Gosselin’s medical license amounted to a violation of his First Amendment right to free speech and his due process rights, according to Jenkins, who argued the case against Gosselin was brought in bad faith.
The board dismissed two counts against Gosselin that had claimed he was incompetent. It continued with a third count that asserted Gosselin was unprofessional.
The board rejected recommendations by the Office of the Maine Attorney General that Gosselin pay $8,000, have his license suspended for a longer period and be required to have his medical practice monitored.
This was not Gosselin’s first case before the board, according to records. In 1999, he was found to have responded to emergency calls after consuming alcohol and when he was not the on-call physician.
In 2001, he impersonated his physician assistant and called two pharmacies in an attempt to obtain prescriptions for himself.
In 2011, the board determined Gosselin violated professional standards by having a romantic relationship with a woman who was a patient.
In 2013, Gosselin was charged with operating under the influence after driving erratically in Fairfield and causing two cars to crash, before he drove into a ditch and left the scene. Although he had no alcohol in his system, Gosselin displayed signs of impairment, and a urine sample ordered by Fairfield police showed multiple narcotics in his system, including morphine, according to the board.
And in 2017, Gosselin was found to have violated a probationary agreement.
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