Thanks to Representatives Gonzales and Letson HB284, the PA modernization bill, was introduced in the Ohio General Assembly this week.
The bill will:
1. Allow PAs to make pronouncement of death. Physicians may rely on this announcement when signing a death certificate and would be exempt from liability when doing so.
2. Provide PAs immunity from liability when providing emergency services.
3. Allow PAs to insert and remove chest tubes.
4. Clarify that PAs can prescribe PT and OT treatment.
5. Give PAs Schedule II prescriptive authority.
6. Exempt out-of-state PAs from the prescriptive provisional period if they provide an affidavit of prescriptive authority from another jurisdiction to the Ohio State Medical Board.
7. Improve the process for amending the PA formulary in response to the Medical Board’s desire to update the formulary in a more timely fashion.
The bill will be assigned to a committee but hearings will probably not occur this summer as the Legislators will go on recess until the fall.
You will eventually be asked to contact your State Representative to urge support of HB284. OAPA will provide you with the information you need to do this.
Now that the bill has some momentum, it is extremely important that we maintain our PAC funds. The OAPA Political Action Committee (PAC) provides campaign contributions to key legislators in order to encourage support for the bill. You may make a contribution in any amount to the PAC for general use or you may make a contribution and indicate that you would like to attend a fundraiser for Representatives Gonzales and Wachtmann on July 21 at 4:00 PM at the Crow's Nest inMarblehead,OH.
Contribute to the OAPA PAC today! AWSLinkToForm[6,5]