Missouri okays ’assistant physician’ legislation

Missouri Gov. Ray Nixon has signed a bill that creates a new class of medical license in that state: the “assistant physician.” The new certificate will be issued to medical school graduates who didn’t get into a residency program and who passed Step 1 and 2 exams, but not Step 3. Assistant physicians would be licensed to practice just like regular practitioners, as long as they only treated patients in the most physician-starved poor and rural areas throughout the state.

The new law requires these physicians to be supervised on site by a “collaborative” physician for 30 days, after which the assistant physician can treat patients without the collaborator’s presence in settings 50 mile away. The assistant physicians will be able to prescribe Schedule III, IV, and V drugs. The bill was endorsed by the Missouri State Medical Association, but critics—including the ACGME—say the assistant physician program will establish a dual standard of care: one for the rural and underserved, and another for everyone else.

Source: HealthLeadersMedia