No. CS/SB 1480
Filed under Healthcare.
Temporary Certificates for Practice in Areas of Critical Need; Revising the conditions under which the Board of Medicine, the Board of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Board of Nursing, respectively, are authorized to issue temporary certificates for practice in areas of critical need; authorizing certificateholders to continue primary care services after such areas lose their critical need designation under certain circumstances, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDPhysicians, osteopathic physicians, and nurses who hold a temporary certificate to practice in a critical-need area may now keep treating their existing patients there even after that area officially loses its critical-need designation.
That continuation only covers primary care, only applies if the certificateholder already has an active treatment relationship with patients in the area, and only takes effect if the licensing board finds every other requirement still met.
The change is written identically into the physician, osteopathic physician, and nursing practice acts, and the board must still review every temporary certificateholder at least once a year.
AIA temporary certificate remains valid for practice in a critical-need area even after that area's designation lapses, as long as the certificateholder keeps an ongoing primary care relationship with existing patients there. The change is written identically into the physician, osteopathic physician, and nursing statutes.
AIThe new continuation option only applies if the certificateholder already maintains an active primary care treatment relationship with one or more patients in the critical-need area; it does not extend to new patients or new practice areas.
AIContinuing to practice under the certificate after the area loses its designation is not automatic. The board must find, during its review of the certificateholder, that all other requirements of the certificate are satisfied.
AIThe right to keep practicing after the designation lapses covers only primary care services to the certificateholder's existing patients in that area, not the certificateholder's full scope of licensed practice.