House votes to ease stipulations regarding physician assistants

The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice currently limits a physician to supervising no more than five assistants at one time, but physician assistants are increasingly filling gaps where there are doctor shortages, especially in rural areas.

Rep. Dave Baker

“The limit of five is not a good thing for us,” said Rep. Dave Baker (R-Willmar), who sponsors HF1036, which would repeal the board’s oversight and allow doctors to decide how many assistants they can effectively supervise, based on the scope of practice and the experience of each physician assistant.

Passed 129-0 by the House on Wednesday, the bill now moves to the Senate where Sen. Chris Eaton (DFL-Brooklyn Center) is the sponsor.

Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL-Rochester) supported the bill but would have preferred a cap on the number of assistants a doctor could supervise.

“One size should probably not fit all, but taking away the limit goes too far,” Liebling said.

The bill also would remove administrative work the assistant is required to submit and shift those duties to the clinic. Physician assistants must file a list of alternative supervising physicians with whom they might work, in the absence of their supervisor. That was easy to do decades ago when there were only two or three doctors in an office, Baker said.

However today, large specialty clinics have hundreds of doctors who rotate within a facility, so physician assistants can work with a dozen or more doctors during a single shift. The bill would put the responsibility for submitting the alternative supervisor list in the hands of the clinic.

Physician assistants also would be given up to 30 business days after starting work to file a notice with the licensing board about where they are practicing and under which doctor’s supervision. Under current law, this is an “intent to practice” notice that must be filed prior to beginning work.