SSB 1015 – Medical Licenses
SSB 1019 – Interstate Physician Licensure Compact
SSB 1039 – Public Health Modernization
SSB 1096 – Public Health Omnibus
COMMITTEE ACTION:
SSB 1015 requires practitioners to relinquish their medical license if they do not apply for renewal or reinstatement of the license within five years of expiration. Additionally, a medical administrative license is established for those who are not directly practicing medicine but use clinical and medical knowledge, skills and judgment for administrative or consulting purposes concerning health care matters, payments for care, quality reviews and other duties that do not require direct patient care. Possession of an administrative license does not convey the authority to practice clinical medicine, examine, care for or treat patients, prescribe medications, or delegate medical acts or prescriptive authority to others. Thirty other states provide administrative medical licenses. [2/18: short form]
SSB 1019 enacts an interstate physician licensure compact, allowing residents of other states to secure an expedited Iowa medical license. The compact has not yet been passed into law in other states but would become operational once at least seven states have enacted the legislation. The bill recognizes the creation of an interstate medical licensure compact commission to administer the compact and outlines membership and voting rights for each participating state. A physician that is disciplined by the medical board of any member state will be similarly disciplined in all member states. The commission’s officers and employees are immune from liability for claims of damage that occur within the scope of their duties. The compact’s provisions do not override the member states’ existing authority to regulate the practice of medicine. [2/18: short form]
SSB 1039 is a cleanup and government efficiency bill. The first division removes outdated references in the Code concerning voluntary Iowa-based public health accreditation standards. Iowa has joined most of the rest of the nation in adopting voluntary national standards. Additionally, this division merges two advisory groups (the Governmental Public Health Advisory Council and the Governmental Public Health Evaluation Committee), retains the name “Governmental Public Health Advisory Council” and assigns the work of those two existing councils to the newly created council. The second division reduces barriers to two or more counties voluntarily choosing to merge their local boards of public health into district boards of health. The changes allow local counties to determine how best to deliver public health services to their residents. [2/18: short form]
SSB 1096 replaces references to hearing aid “dispensers” with “specialists,” fixes an error concerning repeal dates of certain healthcare workforce initiatives included in a 2014 bill (SF 2196), and changes the medical residency grant program to remove a requirement that matching funds are set aside prior to application to the program, increases the match rate from 25 percent to 100 percent for the establishment of new residency programs, and the cap for total awards to one sponsor is increased to no more than 50 percent of all available funds. [2/18: short form]