“Imagine if it was your mother, father, brother, sister, daughter, son or grandchild: would you want them to be operated on by a doctor in a secret [treatment] program?”

That’s the provocative question Tina Minasian wants the California State Senate to consider before voting on AB 408, a bill from Peninsula Democratic Assemblyman Marc Berman that would allow the Medical Board of California to create a diversion and treatment program for practicing doctors grappling with a range of substance use disorders and other issues. The proposal passed the State Assembly in late May with no opposition.

It’s a question she didn’t have the chance to answer for herself before undergoing abdominal surgery in 2002. The Roseville resident had no way of knowing her surgeon was in a diversion program at th

See Full Page