Practice Agreements Expected to Reduce Barriers for Physician Assistants
Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson calls the bill “a physician assistant modernization act.”
June 17, 2011—Sen. Alan Bates (D-Ashland) expressed frustration and lamentation on the Senate floor Tuesday telling his colleagues that physician assistants “simply give up the pursuit of a license and employment in Oregon and move to other states” because of the bureaucratic difficulties they experience.
Oregon has 844 physician assistants and ranks 35th in the nation in terms of how many physician assistants it has. Bates and others hope that Senate Bill 224, which passed the Senate Tuesday, will increase that number and make Oregon a more attractive state by changing the regulation standards.
Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson (D-Gresham), who sponsored the legislation, called it “a physician assistant modernization act.”
“Physician assistants are really important to our healthcare system,” she said. “They work in primary, emergency and specialty care at practices, clinics and deliver medical care to insured and uninsured Oregonians. They give physicals, diagnose, interpret tests, assist in surgery and write prescriptions.”
Monnes Anderson emphasized “this not a scope bill,” saying it will reduce barriers and “empowers the supervising physician and the physician assistant to determine the delegation of duties right for their practice and setting.”
The bill, which has the intent “to encourage appropriate use of physician assistants in the delivery of healthcare services to the extent of a physician assistant’s education and experience,” would requires physician assistants to enter into a practice agreement with their supervising physician.
That agreement explicitly lists a physician assistant’s scope of practice and the procedures they can practice. It also specifies that supervising physicians and physician assistants can be held liable and subject to disciplinary actions if the agreement is violated.
Under the bill, the Oregon Medical Board must approve or reject an application within seven days. That procedure, Bates said, will end delays, shorten waiting periods, end “seemingly arbitrary decisions by the [Oregon Medical Board],” and make it less likely that physician assistants will be the subject of the Board’s “micro scrutiny.”
He said there are numerous barriers to physician assistants being allowed to practice in Oregon, many of which stem from regulatory and bureaucratic issues.
“It’s reached the point where people graduating from OHSU have left the state to get jobs because it’s so difficult to get a practice approved by the State Board of Medical Examiners,” added Bates, who called the bill “a straight forward practice bill” that “minimizes the need for rules.”
Implementation will cost approximately $63,000 because the Oregon Medical Board would have to hire a part-time staff person to modify its information technology system and to handle additional application approvals. The board is expected to come back before the Legislature in February to provide specifics
It’s also unclear when the bill will come before the House for a vote, the final step before proceeding to the Governor’s desk for a signature. It now needs approval by the Joint Ways and Means Committee, despite having already been approved by that committee last week.
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