Governmental Affairs Issue Update
By: Mark DeSantis, PA-C, Chairman, Governmental Affairs
Allopathic Regulations
Now that is has several months since the passage of our new allopathic regulations, hopefully you have been able to update your work agreements and send them to the Board of Medicine for approval. Your allopathic supervising physician should have received a letter in January asking if he or she wanted you to practice under the new regulations. If they didn’t receive the letter or misplaced it, they should contact the Board of Medicine for another copy. By performing that simple task, you can enjoy practicing without the multitude of restrictions that were present since 1993. If you have been living under a rock and haven’t heard about or read the new regulations, you can find everything you need to know on the PSPA web site.
The Drug Enforcement Agency is unfortunately taking their time in reviewing our regulation changes regarding Schedule II medication prescriptions. We have contacted them through the State Board of Medicine attorneys as well as the AAPA inquiring about the delay. We have been told that patience is in order and they will get to it as soon as possible.
That being said, the Philadelphia office of the DEA will NOT process any applications for schedule II amendments until instructed to do so by the National DEA office in Washington, D.C. Until your paperwork has been accepted and processed by the DEA, and you and your supervising physician have received verification of your approval to prescribe schedule II medications, you cannot do so.
We are monitoring the situation regularly and will notify you through the PSPA web site and the PSPA News as soon as the national DEA office gives the Philadelphia office the green light to process applications. We are disappointed about the delay, but our hands are tied. Government is never quick to do anything but collect taxes.
Osteopathic Regulations
These proposed osteopathic regulations mirror our new allopathic regulations. At the March 2007 State Board of Osteopathic Medicine Meeting, legal counsel reported that the proposed regulations were in the first phase of review by the Internal Regulatory Review Commission. The regulatory process for these regulations will be the same as we went through on the allopathic side and will take the same amount of time (approx. 2 years). But we are on the way to seeing prescriptive privilages under Osteopathic supervision.
“Prescription for Pennsylvania.” House Bill 700
Governor Rendell has proposed sweeping changes to the way health care is delivered in Pennsylvania. He wishes to make health care accessible, affordable and cost effective for the citizens of the Commonwealth. The detailed approach is outlined in House Bill 700, which was introduced into the legislature in March. The proposal has gotten a lot of press because of its’ extensive planned use of non-physician providers in delivering the care and because the legislation removes practice barriers that the non-physician providers face. We were initially concerned that physician assistants weren’t equally represented in the language. Thanks to Kitty Martin, PA-C, PSPA president, she met with Rosemarie Greco of the Governor’s Task Force and secured our inclusion in all language and aspects of the proposal. The proposal will give us an opportunity to remove the practice barriers that still exist such as other groups not being allowed to accept orders from PAs due to current regulatory and statute language, expansion of both our supervisory ratios and insurance reimbursement opportunities.
There have been several public hearings across the state to allow individuals and groups alike, express their support and/or concerns regarding the language. The PSPA recently testified at one of those hearings (see Pat Ivory’s article in this issue). The Society’s testimony was well received by the committee. We are optimistic that this piece of legislation will allow the physician/PA team to practice even more effectively.