Steinsmith

The Medical Board of California (Board) appeals from a judgment granting a peremptory writ of mandate commanding it to set aside a citation it issued to Dr. William Steinsmith. We reverse.

I.

Steinsmith is a Board-licensed physician who performed disability evaluations of persons referred by the California Department of Social Services at the Bay View Medical Clinic (Clinic) in San Francisco beginning in 1993. Steinsmith was an independent contractor of the Clinic and the sole physician working there. He was cited by the Board in October 1997 for aiding the unlicensed practice of medicine in violation of Business and Professions Code section 2264. The basis for the citation was that he worked at the Clinic when he knew that it was partially owned by two individuals, Constancio Yu and Mary Downes, who did administrative work for the Clinic and were not licensed physicians.

The prohibition against practicing medicine without a license extends to any person “who advertises or holds himself or herself out as practicing” medicine, which is defined broadly to include among other things the diagnosis of ailments, diseases, injuries, or the “physical or mental condition of any…