Rules Update July 2007
The Physician Assistant Policy Committee (PAPC) met on July 10 and accepted all the revisions to the rules based on changes agreed to in June. The bulk of the discussion was about when an application is considered "abandoned" and how the application process proceeds. The PAPC agreed to modify the rules to require the Medical Board to notify a PA when his/her application is delayed due to an investigation. The Board does this now for physicians.
The PAPC briefly reviewed the formulary addressing several issues raised by OAPA and then sent the formulary to the Physician Assistant Committee (PA Committee) with the rest of the rules. The PAPC will next meet on August 7, 2007.
The PA Committee met on July 11 and advised that the PA rules will be on the agenda for the August PA Committee meeting and they will make their recommendation to the full board at that time. Medical Board staff advises that there is a possibility that the full board will approve the rules in August so that they can be sent to JCARR. After JCARR approves them they will go back to the Medical Board for adoption. This means September is the earliest the rules could be adopted and it is more likely it will October. It all depends on whether or not the Medical Board wants a month to review the rules and also on the JCARR meeting schedule.
The PA Committee also briefly reviewed the formulary and several questions were answered. The committee was asked to review the complete formulary and forward comments to the Chair before the August 8th PA Committee Meeting when they will address the formulary in detail.
The formulary will need to have a public hearing as it was not part of the rules that were heard at the public hearing in April. OAPA is not concerned with approval of the formulary lagging behind the rest of the rules as PAs will use the APN formulary until the PA formulary is adopted.