Introduced Version
Senate Bill 371 History
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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
Senate Bill No. 371
(By Senators Prezioso and Oliverio)
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[Introduced January 28, 2010; referred to the Committee on Health
and Human Resources; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to repeal §30-3-18 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended; and to amend and reenact §30-3-2, §30-3-4, §30-3-5,
§30-3-6 and §30-3-8 of said code, all relating to the Board of
Medicine; defining terms; updating terminology; and
eliminating archaic language.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §30-3-18 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be repealed; and that §30-3-2, §30-3-4, §30-3-5, §30-3-6 and
§30-3-8
of said code be amended and reenacted, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 3. WEST VIRGINIA MEDICAL PRACTICE ACT.
§30-3-2. Purpose.
The purpose of this article is to provide for the licensure
and professional discipline of physicians, and podiatrists and for
the certification and discipline of and physician assistants and to provide a professional environment that encourages the delivery of
quality medical services within this state.
§30-3-4. Definitions.
As used in this article:
(1) "Board" means the West Virginia Board of Medicine
established in section five of this article. Whenever any other
provision of this code refers to the "medical licensing board of
West Virginia", the reference shall be construed to mean and refer
to the "West Virginia Board of Medicine" as created and established
in this article.
(2) "Medical peer review committee" means a committee of, or
appointed by, a state or local professional medical society, or a
committee of, or appointed by, a medical staff of a licensed
hospital, long-term care facility or other health care facility, or
any health care peer review organization as defined in section one,
article three-c of this chapter, or any other organization of
professionals in this state formed pursuant to state or federal law
and authorized to evaluate medical and health care services.
(3) "Practice of medicine and surgery" means the diagnosis or
treatment of, or operation or prescription for, any human disease,
pain, injury, deformity or other physical or mental condition.
"Surgery" includes the use on humans of lasers, ionizing radiation,
pulsed light and radiofrequency devices. The provisions of this
article do not apply to any person who is a duly licensed health
care provider under other pertinent provisions of this code and who is acting within the scope of his or her license.
(4) "Practice of podiatry" means the examination, diagnosis,
treatment, prevention and care of conditions and functions of the
human foot and ankle by medical, surgical and other scientific
knowledge and methods; with surgical treatment of the ankle
authorized only when a podiatrist has been granted privileges to
perform ankle surgery by a hospital's medical staff credentialing
committee based on the training and experience of the podiatrist;
and medical and surgical treatment of warts and other
dermatological lesions of the hand which similarly occur in the
foot. When a podiatrist uses other than local anesthesia, in
surgical treatment of the foot, the anesthesia must be administered
by, or under the direction of, an anesthesiologist or certified
registered nurse anesthetist authorized under the State of West
Virginia to administer anesthesia. A medical evaluation shall be
made by a physician of every patient prior to the administration of
other than local anesthesia.
(5) "State director of Health Officer" means the state
director of health Commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health or
his or her designee, which officer or designee is required to be a
physician and shall act as secretary of the board and shall carry
out any and all responsibilities assigned in this article to the
secretary of the board.
§30-3-5. West Virginia Board of Medicine created; transfer of
powers and duties from medical licensing board; appointment and terms of members; vacancies; removal.
There is hereby created a medical licensing board to be known
as The West Virginia Board of Medicine is continued. The West
Virginia Board of Medicine shall assume, carry on and succeed has
assumed, carried on and succeeded to all the duties, rights,
powers, obligations and liabilities heretofore belonging to or
exercised by the Medical Licensing Board of West Virginia. All the
rules, and regulations orders, rulings, licenses, certificates,
permits and other acts and undertakings of the Medical Licensing
Board of West Virginia as heretofore constituted shall continue as
those of the West Virginia Board of Medicine until they expire or
are amended, altered or revoked. The board shall be is the sole
authority for the issuance of licenses to practice medicine and
surgery, and to practice podiatry and certificates for to practice
as physician assistants in this state and shall be
under the
supervision of physicians licensed under this article.
The board
is a regulatory and disciplinary body for the practice of medicine
and surgery and the practice of podiatry and for physician
assistants in this state.
The board shall consist consists of fifteen members. One
member shall be the state director of health Commissioner of the
Bureau for Public Health, ex officio, with the right to vote as a
member of the board. The other fourteen members shall be appointed
by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate. Eight
of the members shall be appointed from among individuals holding the degree of doctor of medicine and two shall hold the degree of
doctor of podiatric medicine. One member shall be an individual
certified licensed by the board as a Type A physician assistant.
Each of these members must be duly licensed or certified to
practice his or her profession in this state on the date of
appointment and must have been licensed or certified and actively
practicing that profession for at least five years immediately
preceding the date of appointment. Three lay members shall be
appointed to represent health care consumers. Neither the lay
members nor any person of the lay members' immediate families shall
be a provider of or be employed by a provider of health care
services. The State Director of Health's Health Officer's term
shall continue continues for the period that he or she holds office
as State Director of Health Officer. Each other member of the
board shall be appointed to serve a term of five years: Provided,
That the members of the medical licensing board or Board of
Medicine holding appointments on the effective date of this section
shall continue to serve as members of the Board of Medicine until
the expiration of their term unless sooner removed. Each term
shall begin begins on October 1 of the applicable year, and a
member may not be appointed to more than two consecutive full terms
on the board.
Not more than four physicians, one podiatrist and two lay
members appointed by the Governor as members of the board shall
belong to the same political party. The Type A physician assistant member may not belong to the same political party to which a
majority of the lay members belong. A person is not eligible for
membership on the board who is a member of any political party
executive committee or, with the exception of the state Director of
Health Officer, who holds any public office or public employment
under the federal government or under the government of this state
or any political subdivision thereof. or who is an appointee or
employee of the state board of health Should this be Secretary of
the Department of Health and
In making appointments to the board, the Governor shall, so
far as practicable, select the members from different geographical
sections of the state. When a vacancy on the board occurs and less
than one year remains in the unexpired term, the appointee shall be
is eligible to serve the remainder of the unexpired term and two
consecutive full terms on the board.
No member may be removed from office by the Governor except
for official misconduct, incompetence, neglect of duty or gross
immorality: Provided, That the expiration, surrender, or
revocation of the professional license or certification of a member
of the board shall be cause for removal causes his or her
membership to immediately and automatically terminate.
§30-3-6. Conduct of business of West Virginia Board of Medicine;
meetings; officers; compensation; expenses; quorum.
Every two years the board shall elect from among its members a president and vice president. Regular meetings shall be held as
scheduled by the rules and regulations of the board. Special
meetings of the board may be called by the joint action of the
president and vice president or by any three members of the board
on seven days' prior written notice by mail postage prepaid or
electronic means or, in case of emergency, on two days' notice by
telephone or electronic means. With the exception of the state
Director of Health Officer, members of the board shall receive one
hundred dollars for each day actually spent in attending the
sessions of the board or its committees. A board member shall be
reimbursed for all reasonable and necessary expenses actually
incurred when a meeting is held in a location that is removed from
the member's place of residence are entitled to receive
compensation and expense reimbursement in accordance with section
eleven, article one of this chapter.
A majority of the membership of the board constitutes a quorum
for the transaction of business, and business is transacted by a
majority vote of a quorum, except for disciplinary actions which
shall require the affirmative vote of not less than five members or
a majority vote of those present, whichever is greater.
Meetings of the board shall be held in public session. except
that the board may hold closed sessions to prepare, approve, grade
or administer examinations Disciplinary proceedings, prior to a
finding of probable cause as provided in subsection (o) (p),
section fourteen of this article, shall be held in closed sessions, unless the party subject to discipline requests that the hearing
proceedings be held in public session.
§30-3-8. State Health Officer to act as secretary of the board.
The State Health Officer, in addition to being a member of the
board, shall act as its secretary. He or she shall, together with
the president of the board, sign all licenses, reports, orders and
certificates that may be required by the board in the performance
of its duties.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to update the Medical
Practice Act by eliminating archaic terminology and replacing it
with current terminology.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
§30-3-8 has been substantially rewritten, therefore,
strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.