BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 240

By: Huffman

Public Health

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 It has been observed that Texas faces significant shortages in a variety of health care professions and that physicians in Texas are not evenly distributed throughout the state. S.B. 240 seeks to address this shortage issue and allow qualified, out-of-state doctors to obtain a Texas medical license by amending current law relating to examination requirements for certain applicants for a license to practice medicine.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Medical Board in SECTIONS 1 and 2 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

S.B. 240 amends the Occupations Code to exempt from the established time frame within which an applicant for a license to practice medicine is required to pass each part of the examination for such a license and from the limitation on license examination attempts an applicant who is licensed and in good standing as a physician in another state; has been licensed for at least five years; does not hold a medical license in the other state that has or has ever had any restrictions, disciplinary orders, or probation; and will practice in a medically underserved area or a health manpower shortage area, as those terms are defined by provisions of law relating to prescribing at sites serving certain medically underserved populations. The bill authorizes the Texas Medical Board by rule to establish a process to verify that a person, after meeting the requirements described above, practices only in a medically underserved area or a health manpower shortage area.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2011.