BILL ANALYSIS

S.B. 889

By: Uresti

Public Health

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Attorneys, doctors, nurses, and most licensed professionals in Texas are governed by licensing boards composed in part of individuals who are themselves a member of the profession the board regulates. Physician assistants are currently governed by the Texas Physician Assistant Board which consists of nine total members with three practicing physician assistants, three physicians, and three public members. Interested parties assert that the majority of the board should be  composed of members who are physician assistants. S.B. 889, among other matters, seeks to address this issue.

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. 889 amends the Occupations Code to increase from nine to 13 the number of members of the Texas Physician Assistant Board and to increase from three to seven the number of board members who must be a practicing physician assistant with at least five years of clinical experience as a physician assistant. The bill establishes that the terms of four or five members, as applicable, rather than the terms of three members, expire on February 1 of each odd-numbered year. The bill requires the board member designated by the governor as the presiding officer of the board to be a physician assistant member of the board and establishes that if, on the bill's effective date, the presiding officer of the board does not meet such qualifications, the presiding officer is removed from that office on that date. The bill requires the governor, as soon as practicable on or after the bill's effective date, to appoint a presiding officer who meets the qualifications under the bill's provisions. The bill requires the governor, not later than November 1, 2013, to appoint four members to the board as follows: one member for a term expiring February 1, 2015, one member for a term expiring February 1, 2017, and two members for terms expiring February 1, 2019.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2013.