PA State Legislative Highlights of 2007
Arkansas
Enacted – HB 2701 – Mandates payment for physician services provided by PAs
California
Enacted – AB 3 – Removed the requirement for patient specific orders for controlled substance prescriptions, reduced the chart co-signature percentage, increased ratio from 2 to 4 PAs per physician
Enacted – AB 139 – Allows PAs to conduct DMV exams
Enacted – SB 102 – Allows PAs to provide required information to patients regarding blood transfusions
Connecticut
Enacted – HB 7089 – Removed the requirement for registration of supervising physicians with the department of public health
Enacted – HB 7163 – Adds title protection for PAs
Enacted – HB 7155 – Creates a professional assistance program to provide a variety of educational, rehabilitative, and supportive services to health care professionals with a chemical dependency, emotional or behavioral disorder, or physical or mental illness
Failed – HB 5753 – A bill to allow foreign medical graduates to be licensed as PAs
Failed – SB 1362 – A bill to require Medicaid to reimburse PAs at a rate comparable to advanced practice nurses
Florida
Enacted – SB 1700 -- Authorizes physician assistants who meet specified criteria to be certified as paramedics
Enacted – HB 1007 – Authorizes dispensing physicians to delegate dispensing authority to PAs
Georgia
Enacted – HB 528 – Licenses cosmetic laser practitioners and establishes standards for cosmetic laser treatments, PAs among those who may apply to be laser practitioners
Hawaii
Enacted – HB 1253 – Allows individuals and other entities (including PAs) to offer apologies without such gestures being used against them to establish civil liability
Idaho
Enacted – SB 1069 – Allows PAs to certify the cause of death
Illinois
Enacted – HB 1284 – Reauthorizes the PA licensure laws
Indiana
Enacted – HB 1241 – Allows physicians to delegate prescriptive authority to PAs, changes PAs from certified to licensed, defines supervisory agreement, requires notification of supervising physician to licensing agency
Iowa
Enacted – SF 248 – Adds two PAs to the Board of Physician Assistants
Kentucky
Failed – HB 473 – A bill to require that laser treatments be provided only by a physician or when a physician is on-site
Failed – SB 97 – A bill to allow new graduate PAs to work with off-site supervision and to allow PAs to prescribe controlled substances with specified restrictions
Maine
Enacted – HB 575 – Allows PAs to sign death certificates
Maryland
Failed – HB 1230 – A bill to require on-site physician evaluation of patients before cosmetic medical treatment and to allow physicians to delegate cosmetic medical treatment to PAs and RNs
Mississippi
Enacted – SB 2234 – Adds PAs to the good Samaritan law for disaster, emergency, and voluntary charitable care
Missouri
Enacted – HB 497 – Revised the definition of supervision to avert required on-site supervision of PAs; established a master’s degree requirement for new graduate PAs
Nevada
Enacted –S.B. 412 – Revised qualifications and the procedure for licensure and updated supervision laws for PAs supervised by osteopathic physicians
New Mexico
Enacted – SB 20 – Removes limit on the ratio of physicians to PAs
New York
Enacted – AB 8456 – Allows physicians to delegate to PAs the prescription of Schedule II controlled substances.
North Carolina
Failed – HB 178 – A bill to require on-site physician supervision for the use of lasers
North Dakota
Enacted – HB 1333 – Provides that expressions of empathy by health care providers, including PAs, are inadmissible in civil actions
Oregon
Enacted – SB 531 – Adds one PA to the medical board’s PA committee
Enacted – SB 676 – Mandates payment for physician services provided by PAs
Enacted – SB 641 – Authorizes PAs to sign disability permits for fishing and hunting
Enacted – SB 678 – Authorizes supervising physicians to designate alternate physicians for supervising PAs
Enacted – HB 2756 – Allows PAs to serve as attending providers for patients covered by the state workers’ compensation program for up to 60 days or 18 visits
Pennsylvania
Enacted – HB 1251 and 1252 – Allow physicians to supervise up to 4 PAs at one time
South Dakota
Enacted – HB 1028 – Modernizes a wide range of PA laws, updating the process for licensure, practice agreements, and the definition of the PA scope of practice
Virgin Islands
Failed – Bill 27-0060 – The governor vetoed a portion of this bill that would have allowed foreign medical graduates to be licensed as PAs
Virginia
Enacted – SB 993 – Allows PAs to certify disability for the purposes of parking placards
Failed – SB 980 – A bill to remove outdated language from the definition of PAs’ scope of practice so that it no longer excludes establishing a treatment plan
Washington
Enacted – HB 1505 – Allows PAs to determine disability for special parking privileges
Enacted – HB 1722 – Clarifies the authority of physician assistants to sign certain certificates for workers’ compensation
Enacted – HB 1966 – Allows PAs to sign certain health department forms
Wyoming
Failed – HB 248 – A bill to create a task force to review the possibility of opening a PA program in Wyoming
