Dr. Anthony Steven Bianchi, MD currently still holds a California license as a physician. His office location is 6042 N Fresno Street, Suite 101 in Fresno.. He now claims to practice Occupational Medicine at this address which the Associated Press claims to be a clinic evaluating and treating workers’ compensation cases in its expose of sexual misconduct in medicine.

The Disciplinary Records of the Medical Board of California provide great detail on his tawdry history with female patients. The details of his behavior are alleged in great detail in these state documents, and they should not be read by anyone who reacts badly to graphical detail.

Disciplinary charges were first filed against Bianchi by the Medial Board of California in 2012. According to the allegations of a December 2012 First Amended Accusation, he engaged in sexual misconduct with female patients as a gynecologist dating back to 2009. His activities with two of them were specific in the Accusation.

On November 13, 2013, Bianchi and his attorney signed a Stipulated Settlement and Disciplinary Order. He admitted that the Medical Board could make a prima facie case against him based upon the Complaint. He was placed on probation which included that he undergo a complete psychiatric evaluation, enter into psychotherapy, and complete a Professional Boundaries Program. He was placed on probation for a period of five years from the date of the Disciplinary Order. Thus his probation would end on December 20, 2018.

A follow up disciplinary action was filed by the Medical Board on May 5, 2015. The Board alleged in its disciplinary action, that, while he was practicing as a gynecologist, he placed a chair against the exam room door, put his fingers into an inappropriate area of a female patients anatomy while exposing himself. This alleged patient abuse occurred in 2009 but was brought to the attention of the Board in 2013 after the victim heard about the prior discipline

These episodes led to disciplinary Orders by the state’s medical board in 2012 and in 2016. Bianchi agreed not contest the charges, and he held onto his medical license. Probation did not require him to notify any subsequent patients of his probationary status, despite the fact he was required to notify his malpractice carrier and employer.  

The AP article that uses his case as an example claims that “When the doctors are disciplined, the punishment often consists of a short suspension paired with mandatory therapy that treats sexually abusive behavior as a symptom of an illness or addiction.”.

The AP goes on to say that decades of complaints that the physician disciplinary system is too lenient on sex-abusing doctors have produced little change in the practices of state medical boards. And the #MeToo campaign and the rapid push in recent months to increase accountability for sexual misconduct in American workplaces do not appear to have sparked a movement toward changing how medical boards deal with physicians who act out sexually against patients or staffers.

The sentencing of Larry Nassar, a former doctor for the U.S. Olympic gymnastics program convicted of abusing more than 150 women and girls, has put a high-profile case of physician misconduct in the spotlight.

But across the country, most doctors accused of sexual misconduct avoid a medical license review entirely. A study last year found that two-thirds of doctors who were sanctioned by their employers or paid a settlement as the result of sex misconduct claims never faced medical board discipline.

“There’s been a failure of the medical community to take a stand against the issue,” said Azza Abbudagga, a health services researcher with nonprofit advocacy organization Public Citizen.

She published a report recently detailing sexual misconduct among physicians. Its findings showed that of the 253 doctors reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank for having been sanctioned by their respective hospitals or health care organizations for sexual misconduct, or paid a settlement that stemmed from such an allegation, 170 of them were not disciplined by state medical boards, even though all boards have access to the reports filed with the data bank.