Rule 990 As used in this article, “physician” means a person authorized, or reasonably believed by the patient to be authorized, to practice medicine in any st…

A "physician" in this context means a licensed medical doctor. It also includes someone the patient honestly believed was a licensed doctor, even if that turned out not to be true.

This matters because California law protects private conversations between patients and their doctors. If you thought you were talking to a real doctor when you shared medical information, that conversation may still be protected, even if the person was not actually licensed to practice medicine.