Current Legislative Issues
IAPA uses the AAPA Legislative Action Center to keep Hoosier PAs in the know about legislative action. Remember to bookmark this page today!
November 22, 2011
IAPA Legislative Update
Dear PA Colleague:
On behalf of the Indiana Academy of Physician Assistants, I’d like to provide you with a legislative update. As you probably remember, we made progress last year on our efforts to improve patient care in
Indianaby revising the PA Practice Act. Thank you for everyone’s effort in contacting your legislators to discuss the importance of strengthening the physician-PA team.
IAPA has plans to introduce legislation in the 2012 session. While this session is less ambitious, it is just as important. The purpose of this session is to clarify some of the changes that were made in the previous session. IAPA is working with legislators and physician organizations to introduce legislation that will:
1. Clarify chart review requirements. It is our goal to introduce legislation to require physicians to review PA charts 100% for the first year of employment, 50% for the second year, and 25% for third year.
2. Remove restrictive ratio requirements. Proposed legislation would permit a physician to supervise 2 PAs at a time. This would allow physicians to practice with more than 2 PAs as long as they were not working simultaneously.
3. Redefine supervision. We propose to amend the law to state that the physician must be physically present or available by telecommunication, eliminating the need for the physician to be within the contiguous county boundary. (Physician will still be available for consultation within 2 hours).
4. Eliminate the prescriptive restriction of a 30-day, one-time prescription for Schedule III-V controlled medications. Initial prescriptions and refills will be allowed in accordance of the law and within scope of practice as delineated in the supervising agreement.
The official draft for this legislative session is currently being written, but our advocacy efforts must start now! Look for alerts in the next few weeks that will give you all the information you need to be strong patient advocates. You might want to contact your legislator now to inform them of our legislative plans. This will be a fast legislative session, so we must get started now!
PAs work with our physician colleagues on a daily basis to provide optimal patient care. In that vein, IAPA is working to build an equally successful relationship with the Indiana State Medical Association. We can use your help. Please start talking with your physician colleagues and help us gain support! If your physician is a member of ISMA, please send an e-mail with your contact information to the IAPA Legislative Chair, Courtney Doran at courtneydoran@hotmail.com. If you don’t know whether your physician is a member of ISMA, please ask and urge her or him to get involved so that she / he can be a strong voice for team-based care.
As always, any other questions or comments are welcomed! Thanks again for your continued support and enthusiasm. We look forward to hearing from all of you in the next few weeks!
Sincerely,
Barbara Battista, SP, PA-C
IAPA President
September 1, 2011
NEW PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT LAWS
New laws for Physician Assistants went into effect on July 1st. Highlights are as follows:
- Physician Assistants (PA) may only prescribe or dispense drugs approved by their supervising physician.
- A PA may not prescribe or dispense schedule I or II controlled substances.
- PAs can write a drug order for use in the hospital for a schedule II controlled substance, if the patient is in an inpatient hospital.
- For Schedules III, IV and V, a PA may prescribe a 1 time 30 day supply. After the 1-time 30 day supply, the additional prescription must be issued by a physician.
- The supervising physician or physician designee shall review within 72 hours after a patient encounter, 100% of the charts for the first three (3) years of employment of the physician assistant by the same employer and at least 50% thereafter. However, if the physician assistant has had less than 1800 hours of practice, the supervising physician or physician designee shall review 100% of the charts within 72 hours of the patient encounter.
- A PA may request an exceptional circumstance waiver from the Medical Licensing Board if the PA and the physician want to work in a non-contiguous county.
- A physician still cannot be the supervising physician for more than two (2) physician assistants. It is not necessary for a PA to resubmit a practice agreement if he/she needs to make changes in their prescribing practices. A copy of the agreement should just be kept on file at their practice location and made available upon request.
A copy of the changes can be found at http://www.in.gov/pla/2592.htm. For specific details about these changes or any PA rules and regulations, IAPA encourages all PAs to contact the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency. This agency will work to answer individual questions regarding your practice and specialty.
Also note: Senate Enrolled Act 363 titled Criminal Background Checks of Licensed Professionals. This Bill requires individuals obtaining licensure in certain healthcare professions to obtain a national criminal background check prior to being issued a license. Effective July 1, 2011, physician assistants seeking initial licensure will be required to submit to finger printing and a national criminal background check by the Indiana State Police (this is the background check that utilizes the criminal history record system of the Federal Bureau of Investigation). The individual applicant will be responsible for the cost of the background check in addition to any of the usual costs associated with obtaining their license (the fees will be paid separately to different agencies). The results of the background check will be shared with the Indiana Professional licensing Agency – in our case, with the Physician Assistant Committee and the Medical Licensing Board specifically – and after that, only confidentially with the appropriate government agencies and law enforcement entities listed in statute.
January 21, 2011
IAPA has worked with legislators to introduce House Bill 1473, which if passed in its current form, may:
- Permit physicians to delegate Schedule II prescriptive authority to PAs
- Remove the requirement that all PA charts be reviewed within 24 hours
- Allow physicians to determine the number of PAs supervised at the practice level
- Remove the requirement that the supervising physician be located in a county contiguous to that in which the PA is practicing.
- Allow PAs to order physical therapy
As you know, success in the legislature takes everyone working together. Right now, we need your supervising physician’s help.
We need every supervising physician in Indiana contact the Indiana State Medical Association and his/her county medical society today, to ask them to support HB 1473. It does not matter if your supervising physicians are not members of ISMA or the county medical society; ISMA needs to hear that HB 1473 is important to doctors and their practices.
Here’s the contact information for ISMA:
Michael Rinebold
Director of Government Relations
mrinebold@ismanet.org
P: (317) 261-2060
F: (317) 261-2076
The message supervising physicians need to make is very simple: ISMA support of this bill is critical to its success in the legislature. If they do not hear from doctors, they will not support the bill. ISMA support of this bill is critical to its success in the legislature.
It takes every PA getting involved to make a difference. Please do your part today!
December 9th, 2010
Please take a moment to review our most recent legislative alert and call to action!
