Bill Text: MS SB2377 | 2016 | Regular Session | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Physician assistants; extend repealer on temporary licensure statutes.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-03-03 - Died On Calendar [SB2377 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2016-SB2377-Comm_Sub.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2016 Regular Session
To: Public Health and Welfare
By: Senator(s) Blount
Senate Bill 2377
(COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE)
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTIONS 73-26-1, 73-26-3 AND 73-26-5, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO TRANSFER THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR LICENSURE AND REGULATION OF THE PRACTICE OF PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS TO THE MISSISSIPPI BOARD OF NURSING AND TO EXTEND THE AUTOMATIC REPEALER ON THE STATUTE PROVIDING FOR TEMPORARY LICENSURE FOR PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 73-26-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
73-26-1. As used in this chapter:
(a) "Board"
means the * * * Mississippi Board of Nursing.
(b) "Physician assistant" means a person who meets the board's criteria for licensure as a physician assistant and is licensed as a physician assistant by the board. Nothing in this chapter authorizes the licensure of anesthesiologist's assistants.
(c) "Supervising
physician" means a doctor of medicine or a doctor of osteopathic medicine
who holds an unrestricted license from the * * * State Board of Medical Licensure
and who is in the full-time practice of medicine and who has been approved by
the board to supervise physician assistants.
(d) "Supervision" means overseeing and accepting responsibility for the medical services rendered by a physician assistant in a manner approved by the board.
SECTION 2. Section 73-26-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
73-26-3. (1) The * * *
Mississippi
Board of Nursing shall license and regulate the practice of physician
assistants in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
(2) All physician assistants who are employed as physician assistants by a Department of Veterans Affairs health care facility, a branch of the United States military or the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and who are practicing as physician assistants in a federal facility in Mississippi on July 1, 2000, and those physician assistants who trained in a Mississippi physician assistant program and have been continuously practicing as a physician assistant in Mississippi since 1976, shall be eligible for licensure if they submit an application for licensure to the board by December 31, 2000. Physician assistants licensed under this subsection will be eligible for license renewal so long as they meet standard renewal requirements.
(3) Before December 31, 2004, applicants for physician assistant licensure, except those licensed under subsection (2) of this section, must be graduates of physician assistant educational programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Educational Programs or its predecessor or successor agency, have passed the certification examination administered by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants (NCCPA), have current NCCPA certification, and possess a minimum of a baccalaureate degree. Physician assistants meeting these licensure requirements will be eligible for license renewal so long as they meet standard renewal requirements.
(4) On or after December 31, 2004, applicants for physician assistant licensure must meet all of the requirements in subsection (3) of this section and, in addition, must have obtained a minimum of a master's degree in a health-related or science field.
(5) Applicants for licensure
who meet all licensure requirements except for the master's degree may be
granted a temporary license by the board so long as they can show proof of
enrollment in a master's program that will, when completed, meet the master's
degree requirement. The temporary license will be valid for no longer than one
(1) year, and may not be renewed. This subsection shall stand repealed on July
1, * * * 2020.
(6) For new graduate physician assistants and all physician assistants receiving initial licenses in the state, except those licensed under subsection (2) of this section, supervision shall require the on-site presence of a supervising physician for one hundred twenty (120) days.
(7) To qualify for a Mississippi physician assistant license, an applicant must have successfully been cleared for licensure through an investigation that shall consist of a determination as to good moral character and verification that the prospective licensee is not guilty of or in violation of any statutory ground for denial of licensure. To assist the board in conducting its licensure investigation, all applicants shall undergo a fingerprint-based criminal history records check of the Mississippi central criminal database and the Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal history database. Each applicant shall submit a full set of the applicant's fingerprints in a form and manner prescribed by the board, which shall be forwarded to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety (department) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Identification Division for this purpose.
Any and all state or national criminal history records information obtained by the board that is not already a matter of public record shall be deemed nonpublic and confidential information restricted to the exclusive use of the board, its members, officers, investigators, agents and attorneys in evaluating the applicant's eligibility or disqualification for licensure, and shall be exempt from the Mississippi Public Records Act of 1983. Except when introduced into evidence in a hearing before the board to determine licensure, no such information or records related thereto shall, except with the written consent of the applicant or by order of a court of competent jurisdiction, be released or otherwise disclosed by the board to any other person or agency.
The board shall provide to the department the fingerprints of the applicant, any additional information that may be required by the department, and a form signed by the applicant consenting to the check of the criminal records and to the use of the fingerprints and other identifying information required by the state or national repositories.
The board shall charge and collect from the applicant, in addition to all other applicable fees and costs, such amount as may be incurred by the board in requesting and obtaining state and national criminal history records information on the applicant.
SECTION 3. Section 73-26-5, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
73-26-5. (1) The * * * Mississippi Board of Nursing
shall promulgate and publish reasonable rules and regulations necessary to
enable it to discharge its functions and to enforce the provisions of law
regulating the practice of physician assistants. Those rules shall include,
but are not limited to: qualifications for licensure for physician assistants;
scope of practice of physician assistants; supervision of physician assistants;
identification of physician assistants; grounds for disciplinary actions and
discipline of physician assistants, which through June 30, 2016, shall
specifically include discipline for violation(s) of the provisions of Sections
41-121-1 through 41-121-9 relating to deceptive advertisement by health care
practitioners; and setting and charging reasonable fees for licensure and
license renewals for physician assistants. However, nothing in this chapter or
in rules adopted by the board shall authorize physician assistants to
administer or monitor general inhaled anesthesia, epidural anesthesia, spinal
anesthesia or monitored anesthesia as utilized in surgical procedures. In
addition, the board shall not adopt any rule or regulation or impose any
requirement regarding the licensing of physician assistants that conflicts with
the prohibitions in Section 73-49-3. The board shall promulgate rules for
licensure and license renewals in accordance with Section 33-1-39.
(2) If the * * * Mississippi Board of Nursing
appoints a task force or committee to address physician assistant regulation,
at least one (1) member of the task force shall be a nurse practitioner who is
a member of the Mississippi Board of Nursing or a nurse practitioner appointee
selected by the board from a list of three (3) recommendations submitted by the
Mississippi Nurses Association, and at least one (1) member shall be a
physician assistant selected by the board from a list of three (3)
recommendations submitted by the Mississippi Academy of Physician Assistants.
SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2016.
