Arkansas
Arkansas State Medical Board Begins Online Renewal Process
The Arkansas State Medical Board has announced the implementation of a new online renewal process as a method of increasing efficiency while cutting costs.
Although online renewals will be optional for the remainder of 2012 renewal year, the services will be mandatory in 2013. The Board recently urged its licensees to become familiar with the new system.
To help prevent identity theft, the one-time registration process is broken into two parts. The first step entails verifying a valid home and email address with the Board. Completion of the first part results in a letter mailed to the home of licensees that includes a personal identification number (PIN) and instructions on completing the second part of the registration process. The PIN is used during the second step of the registration process. When licensees complete the online process, the new system immediately emails them a link, which is used to activate their new account.
Source: Arkansas State Medical Board Newsletter, Summer 2012
California
MBC Regulations Enable Out-of-State Physicians to Provide Volunteer Service
The Medical Board of California (MBC) has adopted regulations that now allow healthcare practitioners, who are licensed in other states, to provide voluntary health care services to uninsured and underinsured Californians on a short-term basis at a sponsored event, without obtaining California licensure.
According to MBC, thousands of individuals in California lack basic health care services and preventive care that could be provided by volunteer healthcare professionals. At the same time, there is a shortage of such volunteers in California due to restrictions that formerly prohibited volunteer out-of-state licensed medical professionals from providing short-term services at events such as free health fairs.
The new rules stipulate that physicians who are licensed in states other than California may volunteer to provide services at health care events in California. No California medical license is needed; however, physicians must register with MBC and hold a current valid medical license in good standing in another state. Practitioners must also submit fingerprints for a criminal background check. Out-of-state practitioners must provide any medical services on a voluntary basis, without charge to uninsured and underinsured persons at a sponsored health care event lasting 10 days or less.
“The mission of the Medical Board is public protection, and this action reflects the Board's ongoing commitment to that mission,” said Linda Whitney, MBC's executive director.
Physicians and free health care event sponsors can download the regulations, registration forms, required signage, and instructions at the MBC web site: www.mbc.ca.gov/licensee/sponsored_free_health_care_events.html
Sponsors of free health care events must register with MBC at least 90 days before the event is held.
Source: Medical Board of California News Release, Aug. 29, 2012
Georgia
Georgia Board's Executive Director is New President of AIM
At its annual meeting in Fort Worth, Texas on April 25, 2012, the Administrators in Medicine (AIM) elected LaSharn Hughes, executive director of the Georgia Composite Medical Board, as its new President.
Hughes succeeds Blake Maresh, executive director of the Washington State Board of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery. Hughes, who has served as executive director of the Medical Board since 2003, has held several key leadership posts in AIM, including secretary and vice president.
AIM, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1984, is the national organization for state medical and osteopathic board executives.
Source: Georgia Composite Medical Board Newsletter, June 2012
Iowa
Iowa Board Begins Communications Effort on Maintenance of Licensure Initiative
The Iowa Board of Medicine has launched a communication effort to update the state's health care community about its work toward possibly adopting a Maintenance of Licensure (MOL) process.
The Iowa Board is one of several states that are participating in pilot projects that will test various components of MOL as a part of the FSMB's national MOL initiative. The FSMB's House of Delegates formally adopted MOL as a means of strengthening patient care by requiring physicians to demonstrate their participation in practice-relevant continuous professional development.
MOL is still years away from implementation, according to the FSMB, which is working closely with a variety of national medical organizations to ensure the proposed process is well-coordinated with other current systems, such as Maintenance of Certification and Continuing Medical Education.
In a news release, the Iowa Board said the communications initiative is intended to “keep physicians and other key stakeholders apprised of new developments.” The Board's communications effort will include occasional press releases to draw attention to MOL information on the Board's website, such as frequently asked questions about MOL, updates on pilot projects and progress reports from the FSMB.
Initial MOL information on the Iowa Board's Website includes frequently asked questions and a variety of other background materials about the MOL concept.
To learn more about the Iowa Board's MOL communications initiative, visit medicalboard.iowa.gov.
Source: Iowa Board of Medicine News Release, October 1, 2012
New Mexico
New Mexico Participating in Program to Share Data Across State Lines
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) has announced that New Mexico is the tenth prescription monitoring program (PMP) to deploy NABP's PMP InterConnect® program, which gives users the ability to request and share program data across state lines.
New Mexico joins PMPs in Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia, which have implemented use of NABP InterConnect. Several other states are in the process of finalizing details of their participation in the program, according to NABP, which expects more than 20 states to be sharing data via NABP InterConnect by 2013.
Since the launch of the program, according to NABP, approximately 500,000 successful data requests have been processed, with authorized users of the PMPs waiting an average of 5.5 seconds for a consolidated multi-state PMP report. NABP calls the system “a highly secure communications exchange platform that facilitates the sharing of data between state PMPs, a key element for early detection, intervention, and prevention of substance abuse and diversion of controlled substances.”
The NABP InterConnect infrastructure allows each participating state the autonomy to program and enforce its rules of access to data and all data is encrypted during the transfer process. The NABP InterConnect program does not house any data, according to NABP.
Additional information about NABP InterConnect development, governance, security, and funding is also available in the NABP PMP InterConnect Fact Sheet (PDF).
Source: National Association of Board of Pharmacy website, October 2012
New Mexico Legislation Strengthens State's Response to Opioid Crisis
Legislation recently passed by New Mexico legislators and signed into law by Governor Susana Martinez, aimed at addressing the rise of deaths due to opioid overdoses, includes a broad set of new mandates for the New Mexico Medical Board and physicians practicing in the state.
Key features of the new law, which amends New Mexico's 1999 Pain Relief Act, include:
Clear definitions for acute and chronic pain
New requirements for clinical pain management rules and guidelines
New requirements for continuing education hours for physicians who prescribe opioids
Measures aimed at raising awareness and familiarity among New Mexico physicians of the state's Pain Relief Act
Creation of a Prescription Drug Misuse and Overdose Prevention and Pain Management Advisory Council under the state's Department of Health
The new measures would require physicians who hold a Federal DEA license and registration to participate in five hours of acceptable continuing medical education (CME) related to pain management between November 2012 and June 2013. Beginning with licenses that are to be renewed in July 2014, 10 hours of CME in pain management would be required for each triennial license renewal cycle and would be included in the established 75 CME hours required for such renewal.
Another important amendment to the state's Pain Relief Act requires that all practitioners who hold a Federal DEA license register as participants in the state's Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) of the Board of Pharmacy.
Opioid prescribing for the relief of pain has increased substantially in New Mexico, and the state now has the highest drug overdose death rate in the United States. According to the New Mexico Medical Board, the state's drug overdose death rate is 2.5 times higher than the national rate for all prescription drugs, and 2.6 times higher than the national rate for opioids.
Source: New Mexico Medical Board website, October, 2012
North Carolina
North Carolina Physician is New President of FSPHP
Warren Pendergast, MD, medical director and chief executive officer of the North Carolina Physicians Health Program (NCPHP), has been elected president of the Federation of State Physician Health Programs (FSPHP).
The FSPHP is a national organization that provides education to and facilitates the exchange of information among state physician health programs. It also develops common goals and standards and enhances issues related to physician health and impairment.
Dr. Pendergast, a psychiatrist, is the first FSPHP medical director from North Carolina to serve as the organization's president. He will serve a two-year term while continuing his role as Medical Director and CEO of NCPHP.
Dr. Pendergast has been an active member of FSPHP since 1999 and has served the organization in various leadership roles.
Source: North Carolina Medical Board website, August, 2012
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Board Completes Transition to Paperless Meetings
The Oklahoma Medical Board is nearing the end of its first year of convening “paperless” meetings in which Board members access information entirely via computer. In a recent news summary of its new meeting process, the Board described the benefits of its transition to an all-electronic environment that relies on iPads for the transmission of key information.
The Board has completed several meetings using the new system and reports that it has been a success: “The transition from enormously cumbersome paper ‘board books’ to instant access for Board members to meeting material on a slim, reusable iPad was accomplished without a hitch,” it reported in its news summary.
Until this year, preparing and disseminating the Board meeting material was a costly, time-consuming, labor intensive process that produced a “meeting book” the size of a large briefcase, according to the Board.
The Board's usual meeting agenda routinely consists of 40 or more items, ranging from regular announcements and reports to reviews of new licenses and the disposition of licensure and disciplinary cases involving practitioners. Board staff estimated that each book could contain a ream of paper or more, which had to be duplicated for a total of 20 individuals associated with regularly scheduled meetings.
In its news summary, the Board noted that immediately following each meeting, staff would “collect all the Board books, disassemble them and finally shred all case documents that had been so painstakingly prepared.”
In the new system, each Board member is assigned an iPad and given a brief tutorial on its use. While staff collects and organizes meeting material just as before, it is now scanned one time only to a “Board meeting PDF file” which is housed on a secure server. Board members are notified by email when the file is available for them to access and download. They are also alerted electronically when additional or late-breaking information needs to be downloaded from the file, “thereby eliminating the need for expedited overnight shipping and sometimes even personal delivery of such material,” according to the Board's news summary.
A special application on the iPad allows Board members to use the device's stylus to make notes, highlight or bookmark pertinent information for reference during the meeting.
The Board estimates that the savings generated by the paperless process will more than pay for the cost of the iPads after only a few meetings.
Source: Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision Issues & Answers, Summer 2012
Wisconsin
Federal Grant Leads to New Online License Verification System in Wisconsin
Using a two-year, $500,000 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, Wisconsin's Department of Safety and Professional Services (DSPS) has implemented a Wisconsin-based Online License Verification System (OVS) intended to improve the portability of physician licensing.
The new system, announced recently by DSPS, will result in same day license verification to other states, employers and insurers, better information sharing for physicians verifying a Wisconsin license, more efficient use of staff time, and a savings in paper and postage costs.
In addition to its new portability system, Wisconsin is one of nine Midwestern states (with Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Kansas, Missouri and South Dakota) that coordinated efforts recently to create a Declaration of Cooperation (DOC) and Common Expedited Endorsement Eligibility Requirements (CEEER), which together provide a set of recommendations and a voluntary pathway to expedite licensing. For more information, visit www.drl.wi.gov.
Source: Wisconsin Medical Examining Board Med Board Newsletter, September 2012
