New physician assistant rules effective September 1, 2009

The NC Rules Review Commission has approved the Board’s comprehensive revision of administrative rules governing the practice of the physician assistant profession, 21 NCAC 32S .0201-0219. This is part of the Board’s larger effort to update and streamline all of its rules. The PA project was accomplished with the input and assistance of practicing physician assistants, the Allied Health Committee (a committee of the NCMB that deals with issues affecting physician assistants and nurse practitioners) and the NC Academy of Physician Assistants.

While there are no major substantive changes to the existing rules, a couple of items may be of interest to physician assistants. PA License applicants must now submit National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) and Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB) reports. These reports must be requested by the applicant and submitted to the Board within 60 days of the request.

Another item that may be of interest to PAs is the relaxed requirement about name badges. If you look at 21 NCAC 32S .0210, you will notice that it only requires the identification to be consistent with the statute, N.C.Gen.Stat.90-640. In part, that law states, “If the identity of the individual’s license, certification, or registration is commonly expressed by an abbreviation rather than by full title, that abbreviation may be used on the badge or other identification.”

The Allied Health Committee and the NCMB discussed this, and decided that the PA profession is sufficiently well known that patients will not be confused or misled by the acronym, “PA” or “PA-C.” Physician Assistants may choose to identify themselves as “P.A.” or “P.A.- C.” on their identification badges, or write out the phrase, “Physician Assistant or Physician Assistant-Certified.”

Another rule change focuses on PA continuing medical education and the two-year cycle. The new rule states the “two year period shall run from the physician assistant’s birthday, beginning in the year 1999, or the first birthday following initial licensure, whichever occurs later.”

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