Legislature(1993 - 1994)
03/10/1994 03:00 PM House L&C
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 507 - LICENSING OF OPTOMETRISTS AND PHYSICIANS CHAIR HUDSON announced that HB 507 was the next bill before the committee. Number 296 REP. CYNTHIA TOOHEY, Co-Chair of the HESS Committee, read the following sponsor statement on CSHB 507(HESS): Section 1 addresses the concerns of the State Medical Board for interviewing applicants for licensure in person. They would like it to be expanded to "the board or its designated representative." This would lessen the cost in time, money, and inconvenience for applicants who wish to practice medicine in the state. Section 2 deals with granting a temporary permit for locum tenens for the purpose of providing temporary medical coverage for an underserved area as approved by the board. Under current statute, locum tenens permits may only be issued to physicians who are substituting for an absent physician. With this change, a temporary permit may be issued to a physician who will be practicing in an area that does not have a regular residing physician. In Section 3 of this bill, a locum tenens permit may be issued to a nonresident optometrist for the purpose of assisting or substituting for an optometrist licensed under AS 08.72. Alaska has a lot of solo practitioners in remote and semi- remote areas of the state. If a practitioner becomes injured, seriously ill or must leave temporarily, he presently must close down his clinic. This can bring a hardship to his patients, especially if the time away extends to several months. REP. TOOHEY explained that the only change from the original bill to the committee substitute appears on page 1, line 6: the word "shall" was changed to "may." Number 328 REP. SITTON asked why medical professionals need interviews when they have extensive backgrounds and degrees that could be looked at instead. Number 337 REP. TOOHEY explained that the testimony in the Health, Education and Social Services Committee held that it was very important to have face to face interviews rather than just looking at the paper trail of someone's educational experience alone. REP. SITTON asked if the rest of the medical profession was handled in the same way as HB 507 proposes to handle optometrists. REP. TOOHEY replied yes. Number 357 DR. ROY BOX, a licensed optometrist who practices in Juneau, testified in support of the locum tenens addition to HB 507, saying it was basically his idea and that's why he got appointed to testify on it. Dr. Box stated that there are only approximately 50 optometrists practicing in the state, and ten of them work for various and sundry government agencies, and that leaves 40, so if anyone gets sick or needs to leave their practice for a period of time, as a practical matter there is no one to fill in for them. He said HB 507 would protect the public as far as the licensure is concerned because that it requires that the medical personnel filling in be licensed by another state or province. DR. BOX added that this provision would also help in the area of specialty care. Small towns often don't have enough business to have their own specialist, but under this bill specialist could come to these towns to hold clinics periodically. Number 372 DR. JOAN GILINECK, board member of the State Medical Board, testified in support of HB 507 and the interviewing process. She said the board feels the interview process provides a window of observation that is not otherwise available to scrutinize the applicant and compliment the written application. She said there are 19 states that require an interview with a board member; there are three states who require an interview with the full board; there are five states who require an oral examination; there are eleven states that require a possible interview; and there are 15 states she thought that require no interview. She said these statistics say something about the value that other states attach the interviewing process. Of course the value of the interview will be in direct proportion to the experience and the skill of the interviewer. Number 420 REP. PORTER asked if the changes being discussed would affect licensing for all physicians. Number 430 DR. BOX stated that the first two sections apply to the medical licensing law and Section 3 applies only to optometrists. Number 447 REP. PORTER asked Dr. Gilineck if HB 507 would allow phone interviews. Number 452 DR. GILINECK responded that a telephonic interview would be allowed under certain circumstances. REP. MACKIE moved passage of HB 507 with individual recommendations and fiscal note. No objections were heard; it was so ordered.
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