Changes to Texas Medical Board regulations regarding the supervision of physician assistants went into effect March 12, 2015, and will reduce both: (i) physician oversight obligations; and (ii) conflict with prescriptive delegation regulations. Specifically, requirements of Tex. Admin. Code tit. 22 §185.16 were reduced to only prohibiting a physician assistant from independently billing patients “except where provided by law.”
Although continuation of this prohibition may create some hurdles for innovative practice delivery models, at least all previous limitations of this regulation, including the requirement of a supervising physician to be on site 10 percent of a practice site’s business hours, are now eliminated.
Not only does this facilitate supervision of physician assistants by physicians, but it eliminates potential conflict with the prescriptive delegation mechanism implemented by the 83rd legislature and implemented by Chapter 193 of the Texas Medical Board Regulations.