BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 505

By: Deuell

Public Health

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Orthotic devices are used by persons with injuries or disabilities to support parts of the body that have become weak or injured and are prescribed by physicians, who generally rely on trained persons to measure and fit these devices. Interested parties assert that Texas laws regulating orthotists are among the most restrictive in the country, requiring a person who measures or fits an orthotic to obtain a license to practice. The parties are concerned that, while other states allow physicians to rely on their own employees or manufacturer's representatives to measure and fit these devices in the physician's office under the physician's supervision, physicians in Texas must send their patients to a licensed orthotist to measure and fit an orthotic device.

The parties contend that, even though it is appropriate to require a license for fabricating and designing orthotic devices, there is no persuasive rationale for requiring a license for nonclinical tasks of measuring and fitting orthotic devices under the supervision of a physician or another licensed health care professional. These requirements, the parties maintain, can also be burdensome to the consumers who sometimes have to travel long distances to get an orthotic device properly fitted. S.B. 505 seeks to address this issue by amending state licensing laws relating to the measuring and fitting of orthotics.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

S.B. 505 amends the Occupations Code to exempt from application of the Orthotics and Prosthetics Act a person who measures or fits an orthosis under the supervision of a physician practicing under the Medical Practice Act. The bill establishes that this exemption does not apply to the measuring and fitting of a custom-fabricated device if the measuring and fitting requires substantial clinical judgment as determined by the treating physician.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2013.