CHANGE HEALTH PROFESSION SPECIALTY CERTIFICATION TO SPECIALTY FIELD "LICENSE"
House Bill 5103
Sponsor: Rep. Patricia Birkholz
Committee: Health Policy
Complete to 10-1-01
A SUMMARY OF HOUSE BILL 5103 AS INTRODUCED 9-26-01
Article 15 of the Public Health Code regulates health care professions through a system of licensure and registration. Under the code, "license" is defined as an authorization to practice where practice would otherwise be unlawful, whereas "registration" means only the authorization to use a designated title where use would otherwise be prohibited. A licensed health professional who has acquired a level of skill and knowledge beyond the minimum needed for licensure may, under certain circumstances, apply for "specialty certification" in a "health profession specialty field." Although only licensed health professionals may obtain health profession specialty certification, specialty certification is technically considered a form of registration. Thus, the lack of specialty certification in a health profession specialty field does not restrict practice but does restrict use of designated titles.
House Bill 5103 would amend the Public Health Code (MCL 333.16105) to eliminate "specialty certification" and replace it with "health profession specialty field license." An individual who held a specialty certification on the bill's effective date would be considered to hold a health profession specialty field license and could renew the specialty field license on the specialty certification's expiration date. (Besides this general provision, the bill also includes a provision specifying that a licensed dentist who held a specialty certification in one or more of the seven acknowledged dentistry specialty fields would be considered to hold a specialty field license in each of those fields. Moreover, this provision would state that such a dentist could obtain renewal of each specialty field license on the expiration date of the specialty certification.) Just as specialty certification is considered a form of registration under current law, a specialty field license would technically be a form of registration. The bill would specify that a licensed dentist who had not been issued a specialty field license in any of the specialty fields of dentistry was not prohibited from performing services in those fields.
The bill would make three other changes to the code's provisions regulating dentistry and nursing. First, the law provides for the establishment of a state board of dentistry and a nine-member task force to advise the board on certified health profession specialty fields. One of the nine members of the task force must be an oral pathologist. Currently, the law requires that the oral pathologist be certified as a dentist specializing in oral pathology. The bill would eliminate this requirement, though all nine members would still have to meet certain requirements set forth in the code's general provisions concerning health professions. Second, the bill would revise
certain instances of the term "registered nurse" to "registered professional nurse." Third, the bill would specify that for purposes of administering the general rules of the board of dentistry and certain rules of the board of nursing, as set forth in the administrative code, a reference to "specialty certification" was a reference to a "health profession specialty field license."
MCL 333.16105 et al.
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This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan House staff for use by House members in their deliberations, and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.