Senate Bill No. 372
(By Senators Stollings, Jenkins, Unger, Foster and Edgell)
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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; providing definitions and current terminology; and
removing outdated language.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be repealed; and that §30-3-2, §30-3-4, §30-3-5, §3-3-6 and §30-3-8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 licensure and
professional discipline of
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
section 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 for the Bureau for Public Health or
his or her designee, which
officer or designee
shall 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; powers and duties continued; 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." The West Virginia Board
of Medicine
shall assume, carry has assumed, carried on and
succeed
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 have continued as those of
the West Virginia Board of Medicine until they
expire expired or
are were amended, altered or revoked. The board
shall be remains
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
under the
supervision of physicians licensed under this article. and The
board shall
continue to be 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 of fifteen members. One member shall
be the state
director of health
officer 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 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 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
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 by the board of a
member of the board shall
be cause
for removal the 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
and 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 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
director of health officer to act as secretary of
the board.
The state
director of health
officer, in addition to being a
member of the board, shall act as its secretary.
and shall be in
charge of its offices and responsible to the board for the
maintenance of the offices and the preparation of application
forms, licenses, reports and all other papers or documents that may
be required by the board in the performance of its duties He
or
she shall, together with the president of the board, sign all
licenses, reports,
orders and other documents
that may be required
by the board in the performance of its duties.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to update language in the
West Virginia Medical Practice Act and provide current terminology.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)
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