PHYSICIAN'S ASSISTANT: PODIATRY H.B. 5653 (S-1): FLOOR ANALYSIS
House Bill 5653 (Substitute S-1 as reported)
Sponsor: Representative Shelley Goodman Taub
House Committee: Health Policy
Senate Committee: Health Policy
CONTENT
The bill would amend the Public Health Code to allow a physician's assistant to practice under the supervision of a podiatrist.
A physician's assistant acting under the supervision of a podiatrist could perform only those duties included within the scope of practice of the supervising podiatrist.
A podiatrist who supervised a physician's assistant could delegate to the physician's assistant only the performance of podiatric services for a patient who was under the podiatrist's case management responsibility, if the delegation were consistent with the physician's assistant's training. A podiatrist could supervise a physician's assistant only in the performance of those duties included within his or her scope of practice.
The DCH could promulgate rules for the appropriate delegation and use of a physician's assistant by a podiatrist.
The bill would add a member of the Board of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery and a third public member to the joint task force on physician's assistants. The bill also would add a physician's assistant to the Board of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery, and reduce the number of public Board members from four to three. The Board would have to give the task force written recommendations on criteria for the approval of physician's assistants and on criteria for the valuation of physician's assistants training programs.
The bill would take effect six months after it was enacted.
MCL 333.16337 et al. Legislative Analyst: Julie Koval
FISCAL IMPACT
Permitting podiatrists to make use of physician's assistants could increase the number of licensed physician's assistants in the State. The Department currently charges a $30 fee for the processing of an initial application for licensure and $50 per year for licensure as a physician's assistant. Because the Department already has staff devoted to processing physician's assistant licensure requests, the fee revenue from an increase in the pool of applicants would likely be larger than the administrative costs associated with handling these applications, leading to a moderate positive fiscal impact on the State.
Date Completed: 5-8-06 Fiscal Analyst: David Fosdick
Analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent. hb5653/0506