Physician Assistants Update

Virginia Academy of Physician Assistants Government Affairs Update PAs for the Win in Virginia

By Robert A. Glasgow, PA-C, MPAS, MPH, DFAAPA, and Polly Porter, PA-C, ATC

2016 brings good fortune for Virginia Physician Assistants and orthopaedic practices who hire them. This year legislation was passed that relieves limitations to practice, i.e. waiting for practice agreement approval by the Board of Medicine.

The Physician Assistant Modernization Act (SB 551) was introduced during the General Assembly's 2016 Session. This bill was a two-year collaborative effort of Medical Society of Virginia and VAPA, and capitalized on our team approach. The bill experienced zero opposition in the Senate, zero opposition in the House, and was signed by the Governor March 11, 2016. It went into effect July 1, 2016.

Specifically:

It is unlawful for a person to use in connection with his name the words or letters "Physician Assistant" or "PA" unless he/she is a licensed Physician Assistant.
The bill requires a Physician Assistant to enter into a written or electronic practice agreement with at least one supervising physician or podiatrist, to maintain evidence of such agreement, and to provide it to the Board upon request.
These records may be maintained in the office and the adding of alternate supervising physicians does not require approval from the Virginia Board of Medicine.

Effective July 1, 2016, Practice Agreements (which include one's scope and supervision ) are approved at the practice level, no longer requiring approval by the Board of Medicine (and the time delay involved). This eliminates the previous barriers to patient care as the PA had to wait for Board approval.

PAs employed by a hospital or emergency department are no longer required to discuss cases with an attending physician prior to patient discharge.

Evidence of a practice agreement shall be maintained by the physician assistant and provided to the Board upon request.

Reminder: A physician may supervise up to six physician assistants at one time.

Nationally, orthopaedic surgeons are the largest employer of Physician Assistants of any subspecialty, employing 10,000 out of the more than 100,000 PAs in the US. This partnership works very well to extend the services of the surgeon in the office and in surgery.

Virginia’s new legislation will eliminate that wait time before beginning to practice in the office or surgery in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginia is miles ahead of other states in terms of legislation, and collaboration continues between the Medical Society of Virginia and the Virginia Academy of Physician Assistants.

VAPA has our membership to thank for our legislative successes. Having PAs write letters to their Senators and Delegates, to visit the General Assembly and advocate for our signature bill, was instrumental in our success. We have a very active year ahead of us, and are preparing for our legislative year in earnest. Our annual advocacy event, White Coats on Call (in collaboration with the Medical Society of Virginia), is scheduled for February 6, 2017. It will be an all day event, with morning and afternoon sessions. I hope that one of these sessions will fit your schedule. An outline of issues, talking points, and training opportunities will be available well in advance. Please mark your calendars and plan to be a part of our annual advocacy effort!

If you have any concerns, questions or comments regarding Physician Assistants in the Commonwealth of Virginia, please contact our President, Robert Glasgow, MD at kiltedpa@gmail.com or vapa@vapa.org.

Virginia Academy of Physician Assistants
250 W. Main Street, Suite 100
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434-977-3716