BILL ANALYSIS S.B. 1301 By: Cain (Berlanga) May 11, 1995 Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND Current law requires all medical education taken within the United States to be accredited by an accrediting body officially recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council on Post Secondary Accreditation. An international medical graduate who received training or education in the United States as part of a degree program leading to the medical doctorate degree of another country would have been educated in the United States outside the approved educational structure. The Council on Post Secondary Education no longer exists. PURPOSE S.B. 1301 would authorize the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners to set the annual registration fee for physician licenses, validate a temporary license for out-of-state physicians for 180 days and authorize its renewal for an additional 180 days, and set forth requirements for the licensing of graduates of certain foreign medical schools. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill grants additional rulemaking authority to the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners under SECTION 4 (Section 3.04, Medical Practice Act, Article 4495b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes). SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 3.01(c), Medical Practice Act (Article 4495b, V.T.C.S.) as follows: (2) Authorizes a physician, whose license has been expired for 90 days or less, to renew the license by paying to the board the required renewal fee and a fee that is one-half the annual registration fee as established by the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners (board) under Section 3.10(b)(7) of this Act, instead of a fee that is one-half of the examination fee for the license. (3) Authorizes a physician, whose license has been expired for longer than 90 days but less than one year, to renew the license by paying all unpaid renewal fees and a fee that is equal to the annual registration fee. Deletes the reference to an examination fee. (4) States that a persons's license is considered cancelled that has been expired for one year, and adds an exception to this if an investigation is pending. (6) Requires the board to provide written notice to each practitioner at least 30 days prior to the expiration date of a license, and to provide for a 30-day grace period for payment of the annual registration fee from the date of the license expiration. SECTION 2. Amends Section 3.025(a), Medical Practice Act (Article 4495b, V.T.C.S.), to delete the Council on Medical Specialty Societies from a list of the entities whose standards the board is required to take into account in approving hours of continuing medical education. SECTION 3. Amends Section 3.0305, Medical Practice Act (Article 4495b, V.T.C.S.), as follows: Sec. 3.0305. (a) Requires an applicant for licensure to be granted one temporary license to practice medicine. (c) Makes a temporary license valid for 180 days, rather than until the date the board approves or denies the temporary license holder's application for a license. (d) Authorizes the temporary license to be renewed for an additional 180 days at the discretion of the executive director. SECTION 4. Amends Section 3.04, Medical Practice Act (Article 4495b, V.T.C.S.), by adding Subsections (g)-(j), as follows: (g) Requires an applicant who is a graduate of a medical school located outside the United States and Canada and that was not approved by the board at the time the degree was conferred, in order to be eligible for the issuance of a license, to present certain satisfactory proof to the board. (h) Authorizes the board, by rule, to establish alternate educational prerequisites to those required by Subsection (a)(3) of this section for an applicant who graduated from an unapproved medical school located outside the United States and Canada. (i) Authorizes the board, before approving the applicant, to require by rule that a graduate of an unapproved medical school outside the United States and Canada or the school of which a person is a graduate provide additional information to the board concerning the school, in addition to other license requirements. (j) Authorizes the board to refuse to issue a license to an applicant who graduated from an unapproved medical school outside the United States and Canada if the applicant does not possess the requisite qualifications to provide the same standard of medical care as provided by a physician licensed in this state, or the applicant failed to provide the board the evidence to establish completion of a medical education or training substantially equivalent to that provided by a Texas medical school. SECTION 5. Adds Subsection (a)(17) to Section 1.03, Medical Practice Act (Article 4495b, V.T.C.S.), to add the definitions of "doctor of osteopathy" and "doctor of osteopathic medicine." SECTION 6. Repeals Sections 3.01(i) (Registration of Practitioners and Interns), 3.04(e) (Qualification of Licensee), 5.035 (Graduates of Unapproved Foreign Medical Schools) and 5.04 (Fifth Pathway for Foreign Medical School Students) of the Medical Practice Act (Article 4495b, V.T.C.S.). SECTION 7. Emergency clause. Effective date: upon passage. SUMMARY OF COMMITTEE ACTION S.B. 1301 was considered by the Public Health Committee in a formal meeting on May 11, 1995. The bill was reported favorably without amendment, with the recommendation that it do pass and be printed and be sent to the Committee on Local and Consent Calendars, by the record vote of 8 AYES, 0 NAYS, 0 PNV, and 1 ABSENT.