By Noriega                                            H.B. No. 3523
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the licensure of physicians.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 3.05(c) of the Medical Practice Act
 1-5     (Article 4495b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended and a
 1-6     new Section 3.05(d) is added to read as follows:
 1-7           (c)  All applicants for license to practice medicine in this
 1-8     state not otherwise licensed under the provisions of law must
 1-9     successfully pass a uniform examination approved by the board as
1-10     determined by rule.  The board is authorized to adopt and enforce
1-11     all rules of procedure not inconsistent with statutory
1-12     requirements.  All applicants shall be given due notice of the date
1-13     and place of examination.  If any applicant, because of failure to
1-14     pass the required examination, is refused a license, the applicant,
1-15     at a time as the board may fix, shall be permitted to take a
1-16     subsequent examination [not more than two additional times as the
1-17     board may prescribe] on the payment of a fee as the board may
1-18     determine to be reasonable.  In the even satisfactory grades shall
1-19     be made on the subjects prescribed and taken on the reexamination,
1-20     the board may grant the applicant a license to practice medicine.
1-21     The board shall determine the credit to be given examinees on
 2-1     answers turned in on the subjects of complete and partial
 2-2     examination, and its decision is final.
 2-3           (d)  An applicant shall be limited in examination attempts
 2-4     based on the applicant's examination dates and not based on the
 2-5     date the applicant submitted his or her application to the board as
 2-6     follows:
 2-7                 (1)  an applicant who has passed all components of an
 2-8     examination prior to September 1, 1993 shall be credited with
 2-9     passage of the examination if:
2-10                       (A)  the applicant passed each examination
2-11     component in three or fewer attempts, or
2-12                       (B)  the applicant passed any examination
2-13     component in more than three attempts and the applicant is
2-14     specialty board certified by a board that is a member of the
2-15     American Board of Medical Specialties or a specialty board approved
2-16     by the American Osteopathic Association; or
2-17                       (C)  the applicant passed any examination
2-18     component in more than three attempts and the applicant obtains or
2-19     has obtained an additional year of training for each attempt after
2-20     the third.
2-21                 (2)  an applicant who has not passed all components of
2-22     an examination prior to September 1, 1993, may not take more than
2-23     three attempts at any component of the examination.
2-24           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation an the crowded
2-25     condition of the calendars in both houses create an emergency and
 3-1     an imperative public necessity that the constitutional rule
 3-2     requiring bills to be read on three several days in each house be
 3-3     suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended, and that this Act
 3-4     take effect and be in force farm and after its passage, and it is
 3-5     so enacted.