AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Physicians often practice in a team model, wherein a physician supervises and delegates to Physician Assistants (PA) and Advanced Practice Nurses (APN). Under the Occupations Code, licensed PAs and APNs act as the agent of the physician. They can only practice medicine under the supervision and delegation of a physician, and have delegated prescriptive authority from their supervising physician.
In many physician practices, the patient may only see their PA or APN, especially in rural and medically underserved areas. Like a prescription for medication, a prescription for a handicap parking placard is, for some patients, a medical necessity.
S.B. 1984, 81st Legislature, Regular Session, 2009, amended the Transportation Code to allow PAs and APNs operating under the delegated prescriptive authority of a licensed physician to write handicapped parking placard prescriptions in rural counties with a population of 125,000 or less. In urban counties, however, Texas law still bars PAs and APNs from writing these prescriptions.
S.B. 1984 helped patients in rural settings, but not those in urban medically underserved areas. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Bexar, Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, and El Paso counties are all prime examples of urban counties with medically underserved areas.
S.B. 963 seeks to extend the authority to prescribe handicapped parking placards to PAs and APNs acting as the agent of a licensed physician in all Texas counties regardless of population. By extending the authority to prescribe handicap parking placards, the Transportation Code conforms to the Physician-PA/APN practice laws of our state. This will ensure that patients of PAs and APNs in a Physician-PA/APN practice model will not be delayed in receiving their medically necessary handicap parking placard.
As proposed, S.B. 963 amends current law relating to certification of a person as eligible for disabled parking privileges.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 681.003(f), Transportation Code, as added by Chapter 842 (S.B. 1984), Acts of the 81st Legislature, Regular Session, 2009, to delete existing text making this subsection applicable only to a person who resides in a county with a population of 125,000 or less.
SECTION 2. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2011.