Ohio Senate Bill 109 Sexual Misconduct Policy Changes
Summary
Ohio Senate Bill 109 (SB 109), effective March 21, 2025, substantially amends state law to strengthen the State Medical Board of Ohio's authority over licensed healthcare providers. The law shortens reporting timeframes from 60 to 30 days for healthcare facilities, providers, and professional associations; authorizes the Board to summarily suspend licenses for felony charges; requires Board providers on probationary orders to disclose their status to patients; expands criminal code sex offense provisions; and prohibits unauthorized intimate examinations on anesthetized or unconscious patients.
What changed
Ohio SB 109, effective March 21, 2025, makes substantive changes across four areas: (1) expands the criminal code to include licensed medical professionals in childhood sexual abuse statutes and expands sexual battery and rape offenses; (2) shortens reporting timeframes for healthcare facilities, providers, and professional associations from 60 to 30 days, requires healthcare facilities to report investigation commencement within 30 days, and requires Board providers to report certain criminal charges within 30 days; (3) authorizes the Board to summarily suspend licenses for verifiable felony charges, requires probationary providers to provide written patient disclosures, and makes Board confidentiality statute violations a 1st degree misdemeanor; and (4) prohibits certain healthcare providers from performing unauthorized intimate examinations on anesthetized or unconscious patients.
Healthcare providers, healthcare facilities, and professional associations must update internal compliance protocols to meet the new 30-day reporting requirements and investigation commencement notification obligations. Board providers subject to probationary orders related to sexual misconduct or patient harm must implement patient disclosure procedures. Healthcare facilities must establish protocols for reporting investigation commencement to the Board. Courts and prosecutors face new mandatory reporting requirements to the Board for indictments and convictions of licensed medical providers.
Archived snapshot
Apr 17, 2026GovPing captured this document from the original source. If the source has since changed or been removed, this is the text as it existed at that time.
March 14, 2025 | Agency
Governor DeWine’s Working Group on the State Medical Board of Ohio (the Board) asked the Board to consider a series of legislative recommendations to improve the Board’s handling of sexual misconduct complaints. Working with the Working Group and stakeholders, the Board created a legislative package that was first introduced in the 134th General Assembly and then became Senate Bill 109 (Sen. Hackett) in the 135th General Assembly.
Effective, March 21, 2025, Senate Bill 109 accomplishes, in large part, the following:
Changes to Sex Offenses in the Criminal Code
- Changes are made to the criminal code to ensure the Board can take action in certain situations of providers engaging in sexual activity, including adding licensed medical professionals to an existing list of individuals (e.g., teachers, coaches, mental health professionals) in the childhood sexual abuse statute.
- The offense of sexual battery is expanded and the circumstances under which rape is committed are expanded.
- Changes are made to the sexual offender registration law due to the expanded definition of sexual battery.
Increased Reporting Requirements
- Courts and prosecutors now have reporting requirements to the Board for indictments and convictions of sexual battery offenders who are licensed medical providers.
- The offense of failure to report a crime is expanded to instances when an individual knows a licensed medical provider has committed a sexual offense against a patient.
- The time in which health care facilities, providers, and professional associations must report various conduct to the Board is generally shortened to 30 days (from 60).
- Health care facilities are now required to report the commencement of a sexual misconduct or criminal misconduct investigation against a Board provider to the Board within 30 days.
- Board providers are now required to report certain criminal charges within 30 days of the charge.
Changes to Medical Board Regulations
- The Board is now authorized to summarily suspend a license if the Board receives verifiable information that a provider has been charged with a felony and the conduct charged constitutes a disciplinary violation under Ohio law.
- The Board is now authorized to require providers who are subject to probationary orders related to sexual misconduct or patient harm to provide a written disclosure to each patient, or the patient’s guardian or a key third party.
- The Board is now authorized to provide a status update regarding an investigation to a complainant on request if the Board verifies the complainant’s identity.
- A violation of the Board’s confidentiality statute is now a 1st degree misdemeanor.
Prohibition of Unauthorized Intimate Examinations
- Certain healthcare providers are now prohibited from performing, or authorizing another to perform, an intimate examination on an anesthetized or unconscious patient.
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The Medical Board released two podcast episodes that explain the board's process of handling sexual misconduct complaints. Click the links below to listen!
- Addressing Sexual Misconduct Part 2
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