10/05/2026
HB 963 Spotlight: Eliminating the Separate Pharmacology CME Requirement
Ohio House Bill 963 seeks to align state law with modern PA education and practice, for the benefit of Ohio patients and healthcare teams alike.
This article is part of a series focusing on the 14 actions within HB 963 that modernize PA practice in Ohio.
Action:
Eliminate the separate requirement of 12 pharmacology continuing medical education (CME) credits.
Rationale:
PAs are subject to standard continuing medical education requirements for licensure renewal, along with ongoing maintenance of national certification, ensuring that PA knowledge and expertise in prescribing are current. This Ohio requirement of 12 additional pharmacology hours positions PAs seeking to practice in Ohio, and the state, at a competitive disadvantage, now and when the PA Compact is soon launched.
Every licensed PA in Ohio already completes ongoing CME and maintains national certification through the NCCPA, a rigorous, standardized process designed to ensure PAs stay current across the full scope of their training, including pharmacology. On top of that, Ohio law layers on an additional, state-specific requirement: 12 extra hours of pharmacology CME.
This isn't a minor scheduling inconvenience. For a PA weighing where to build a career, an extra, duplicative requirement can be the deciding factor that sends them, and the care they'd provide, to another state entirely.
The timing adds urgency. As the PA Licensure Compact moves toward implementation, states that streamline licensure requirements will have an easier time attracting and retaining PAs who can practice across state lines. States with extra, non-standard hurdles risk becoming less competitive just as that mobility becomes real.
Ohio PA Josanne K. Pagel, M.Div., MPAS, PA-C, DFAAPA, C-EBS, Past President of AAPA and OAPA and retired OAPA Government Affairs Chair, provided background on the current law, and why it's time to change.
"In the late 1990s, OAPA started pursuing prescriptive authority for Ohio PAs. OAPA developed pharmacology CME programming covering prescribing practices and Ohio laws and regulations to demonstrate to the State Medical Board and other wary stakeholders, in good faith, that PAs were prepared to prescribe. That effort paid off. In 2006, PA prescribing became law, with the stipulation that PAs must complete 12 additional hours of pharmacology CME."
PA education and clinical experience have continued to expand and improve in the 20 years since. Through national certification and state licensure, Ohio PAs are required to complete continuing medical education and maintain strong knowledge in pharmacology. Ohio's extra CME mandate burdens PAs and weakens our ability to compete with other states for PA talent.
For PA Pagel, the 12-hour requirement has served its purpose. "It is now time to remove the additional 12-hour requirement to our CME logging. We no longer need an additional 12 hours in order to be prudent, responsible prescribers."
Ohio PA Patrick Cafferty, MPAS, PA-C, DFAAPA, Associate Professor Emeritus and Founding Director of one of Ohio's 17 PA programs, echoes this perspective.
"Pharmacology education in PA education provides an important foundation for the subsequent application of medication management within patient care. This clinical application occurs in both the didactic and subsequent clinical phases of PA education through an integrated curriculum where PAs must facilitate a correct diagnosis and propose a treatment plan that includes pharmacologic care. They must also evaluate the patient's existing medical history for potential comorbidity that might create issues with certain classes of medication. Following graduation PAs continue to have a requirement for 100 hours of continuing medical education every two years (twice the requirement of physicians in Ohio) that typically includes the integration of pharmacology. This educational model is far more effective for application in patient care than isolated education in pharmacology."
Eliminating the additional pharmacology CME requirement simply brings Ohio in line with the national standard PAs already meet, keeping the state competitive for talent now and into the future.
Learn more about this and other aspects of House Bill 963, and how you can advocate for PA practice advancement, today.