STATE MEMBER BOARD BRIEFS

Kansas State Board of Healing Arts Celebrates 60-Year Anniversary

A recent proclamation signed by Kansas Governor Sam Brownback commemorated July 1, 2017, as the 60th anniversary of the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts. The Board was established in 1957 by the Kansas Legislature and was originally a composite of the former medical, osteopathic and chiropractic examining boards. Today the Board licenses and regulates more than 27,000 practitioners of 15 professions.

The 15-member Board currently consists of five doctors of medicine (MD), three doctors of osteopathy (DO), three doctors of chiropractic (DC), one doctor of podiatric medicine (DPM) and three general public members. The Board office is located in Topeka, Kansas.

Representatives of the FSMB, including President and CEO Humayun J. Chaudhry, DO, MACP, and FSMB Board of Directors member Ralph C. Loomis, MD, were on hand for a special ceremony celebrating the Board's anniversary in August. To learn more about the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts, please visit www.ksbha.org.

Source: Kansas State Board of Healing Arts news release, July 2017

Candace L. Sloane Honored by Massachusetts Medical Society with Woman Physician Leadership Award

Candace Lapidus Sloane, MD, Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine, has been honored by the Massachusetts Medical Society as the 2017 recipient of the society's Woman Physician Leadership Award, an honor recognizing outstanding leadership and contributions to patients and the medical profession by a female physician.

Following a 20-year tenure as a pediatric dermatologist culminating as Dermatology Residency Director at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Dr. Sloane was appointed to the Board of Registration in Medicine in 2011, reappointed in 2014, and again by Massachusetts Governor Charles Baker in 2017. She has been annually elected Chair five times by her peers on the Board.

Dr. Sloane is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medical Science at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and serves as an interviewer and application reviewer for its Admissions Committee. She is also an Overseer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a member of the Adjunct Medical Staff of Boston Children's Hospital.

Source: Massachusetts Medical Society website announcement, April 10, 2017

Ohio Places New Limits on Prescription Opioids for Acute Pain

Effective August 31, 2017, the State of Ohio has new rules for prescribing opioid analgesics for the treatment of acute pain. Ohio physicians have been notified that the new rules do not apply to the use of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain.

In general, the rules limit the prescribing of opioid analgesics for acute pain in several ways:

• No more than seven days of opioids can be prescribed in the initial prescription for adults.

• No more than five days of opioids can be prescribed in the initial prescription for minors, and only after the written consent of the parent or guardian is obtained.

• Health care providers may prescribe opioids in excess of the day supply limits only if they provide a specific reason in the patient's medical record.

• Except as provided for in the rules, the total morphine equivalent dose (MED) of a prescription for acute pain cannot exceed an average of 30 MED per day.

The new limits do not apply to opioids prescribed for cancer, palliative care, end-of-life/hospice care or medication-assisted treatment for addiction.

Source: State Medical Board of Ohio website announcement, August 18, 2017

Oklahoma Medical Board Launches Streamlined Licensure Process for Physician Assistants

The Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision has launched the Uniform Application (UA) for physician assistants (PAs) to simplify and streamline the application process for PAs seeking licensure in multiple states.

The UA for PAs, developed by the FSMB in coordination with the American Academy of PAs (AAPA), allows applicants to complete one core application that can be saved and sent to multiple state medical boards at once.

The UA eliminates the need for applicants to re-enter the same data multiple times for each individual state they wish to practice in.

“While simplifying the licensure process for PAs, the new Uniform Application is also a win for patients as PAs will have greater flexibility to move from state-to-state to meet local health care needs,” said L. Gail Curtis, PA-C, MPAS, DFAAPA, President and Chair of the AAPA Board of Directors.

“This is a huge move forward in convenience for PAs,” said Lyle Kelsey, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision. “Many PAs wish to practice in multiple states, and the old licensure process could be very tedious and cumbersome. The UA for PAs will make it a much simpler, faster process.”

According to the FSMB, the UA offers a variety of benefits to PA applicants, including:

• Auto-populating key data, saving PAs time by eliminating the need to re-enter information multiple times.

• Storing applicant information in a permanent data repository, which is available to them when they apply for licensure in states that have adopted the UA for PAs.

• Auto-populating credentialing data for users of the FSMB's Federation Credentials Verification Service (FCVS).

The Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision is the first state medical board to initiate the use of the UA specifically for PAs, with more boards expected to join in the near future.

The UA system designated for physicians is currently used by 27 state medical boards, and has helped more than 80,000 physicians apply for licensure in multiple states.

For more information about the Uniform Application process, please call 800-793-7939 or visit www.fsmb.org/licensure/uniform-application.

Source: FSMB news release, August 29, 2017

Oregon Medical Board Publishes ‘Cultural Competency: A Practical Guide for Medical Professionals’

The Oregon Medical Board (OMB) is offering a new booklet for Oregon physicians, titled “Cultural Competency: A Practical Guide for Medical Professionals,” aimed at raising understanding and awareness of working and communicating effectively in an environment of cultural diversity.

The booklet, published in June 2017, has been sent to all OMB licensees practicing in Oregon. According to the OMB, “The Modern Hippocratic Oath calls on health care professionals to provide the best care to each individual patient. In that spirit, and in light of known health disparities among various groups of people, the Board encourages Oregon physicians, physician assistants, and acupuncturists to obtain cultural competency continuing education.”

The OMB has informed OMB licensees that any educational hours in the area of cultural competency will be considered relevant to a licensee's practice and may be used to fulfill the required continuing education for license renewal.

The Oregon Health Authority provides Oregon health care practitioners with a list of cultural competency continuing education opportunities, available through the state's Office of Equity and Inclusion.

The booklet is available electronically at http://www.oregon.gov/omb/Topics-of-Interest/Documents/CulturalCompetencyBooklet.pdf.

Source: Oregon Medical Board Report, Summer 2017

Medical Commission Develops New Process for Sexual Misconduct Complaints

The Washington Medical Quality Assurance Commission has reported that it recently improved its process for handling complaints of sexual misconduct. The Medical Commission has created a Sexual Misconduct Analysis Review Team (SMART), consisting of 12 Medical Commission members who have completed training on understanding the impact of trauma on victims of sexual misconduct.

Under new procedures, a complaint of sexual misconduct will be assigned to two SMART members to oversee the investigation. When the investigation is complete, the SMART members will present the case to a Medical Commission panel to decide whether to begin the disciplinary process against the physician or physician assistant.

If the Medical Commission decides to take disciplinary action, the two SMART members will oversee the settlement process. If the case settles, the two SMART members will present the settlement to a Medical Commission panel for approval. The disciplined physician or physician assistant must be present to answer questions from the panel members. If a case is not settled, and a formal hearing is held, the hearing panel will contain at least one SMART member who was not involved in the decision to begin disciplinary action. Both sexes must be represented on the hearing panel.

According to the Medical Commission, the new process “ensures persons involved in the handling of complaints of sexual misconduct have the training to understand and evaluate these difficult cases.” Washington's new procedures can be viewed at https://go.usa.gov/xRwby.

Source: Washington Medical Quality Assurance Commission Update, Volume 7, Fall 2017

Rules Established for Medical Use of Marijuana in West Virginia

West Virginia recently became the 29th state to allow the medical use of cannabis. Legislation to allow medicinal marijuana in West Virginia, signed into law by Governor Jim Justice, calls for the creation of an Advisory Board within the state Department of Health and Human Resources' Bureau for Public Health to help regulate cannabis use.

The Bureau may issue permits for no more than 10 marijuana growers and 10 processors and 30 dispensaries, with no more than five in any region. The Bureau may not issue more than two individual dispensary permits to one person, and limits grower and processor permits to one per person.

A 10% tax is to be imposed on gross receipts on the sale of medical cannabis by growers and processors to dispensaries. All fees and taxes will go into a Medical Cannabis Program Fund, 55% of which is allocated to the Bureau for Public Health. Of the remaining 45%, 50% is allocated to a Fight Substance Abuse Fund; 40% is allocated to the Division of Justice and Community Services, for grants to local law enforcement agencies for training, drug diversion, and other programs focused on crime and addiction; and 10% is allocated to a fund for law enforcement professional training and professional development programs.

Under the new law, physicians will apply for registration with the Bureau to be authorized to issue certificates to patients to use medical cannabis.

Patients eligible to receive treatment with medicinal marijuana include those with a wide variety of medical conditions, ranging from cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease to epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder and sickle cell anemia.

Also included is severe chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin or severe chronic or intractable pain in which conventional therapeutic intervention and opiate therapy is contraindicated or has proved ineffective as determined as part of continuing care, and those who are terminally ill, with a medical prognosis of one year or less.

Training modules will be developed for physicians regarding the latest scientific research on medical cannabis, including its risks and benefits, and other information deemed necessary by the Bureau.

Patients will be able to access treatment in different forms, including pills, oils, creams, ointments, gels, a form medically appropriate for administration by vaporization or nebulization, tinctures, liquid or dermal patch. It will be illegal to smoke medical cannabis, however, or to incorporate or sell it in edible form other than the legal treatment forms.

The Bureau of Public Health is in the process of drafting temporary rules that are needed to implement the medical marijuana law. Those temporary rules will explain the program's operation, including how applications are to be submitted by growers/processors, dispensaries, patients and caregivers, and physicians.

Under the act, the Bureau may not issue the patient and caregiver identification cards necessary to obtain medical cannabis until July 1, 2019.

More information can be found about West Virginia's new law at www.dhhr.wv.gov/bph/Pages/Medical-Cannabis-Program.aspx.

Source: West Virginia Board of Medicine Newsletter, June 2017