BILL REQ. #:  H-1162.1 

Read first time 01/25/2007.   Referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.

     AN ACT Relating to physician assistants executing certain certificates and other forms for labor and industries; adding a new section to chapter 51.28 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that:
     (1) Under chapters 18.57A and 18.71A RCW, physician assistants are granted authority to practice medicine under the supervision and control of a physician licensed in this state under chapter 18.57 or 18.71 RCW; such supervision and control does not require the personal presence of the supervising physician at the place where services are rendered; and the physician assistant may practice medicine in this state only pursuant to the terms of a practice arrangement plan approved by the licensing body of the supervising physician.
     (2) Physician assistants working under the supervision of a physician and pursuant to a practice arrangement plan can safely improve the efficiency of our health care delivery system by freeing up additional time for physicians to care for patients, and the ability of physician assistants to practice medicine under the supervision of a physician pursuant to a practice arrangement plan but not under the direct supervision of a physician also increases the availability of health care to rural or underserved populations where physicians are often times less available.
     (3) Some state agencies and departments do not accept the signature of physician assistants on certain certificates, reports, and other documents that their supervising physician is permitted to sign, notwithstanding the fact that the signing of such documents is within the physician assistant's scope of practice, covered under the practice arrangement plan, and permitted pursuant to WAC 246-918-140.
     It is therefore the intent of the legislature to clarify in statute what was adopted by rule in WAC 246-918-140, that a physician assistant may sign and attest to any document that might ordinarily be signed by the supervising physician and that is consistent with the terms of the practice arrangement plan.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 51.28 RCW to read as follows:
     The department shall accept the signature of a physician assistant on any certificate, card, form, or other documentation required by the department that the physician assistant's supervising physician or physicians may sign, provided that it is within the physician assistant's scope of practice, and is consistent with the terms of the physician assistant's practice arrangement plan as required by chapters 18.57A and 18.71A RCW. Consistent with the terms of this section, the authority of a physician assistant to sign such certificates, cards, forms, or other documentation includes, but is not limited to, the execution of the certificate required in RCW 51.28.020. A physician assistant may not rate a worker's permanent partial disability under RCW 51.32.055.