Important changes have occurred to the scope of practice for physician assistants (PA). After two years of fiercely fought and failed legislative attempts, SB23-83 passed the legislature and was signed into law by Governor Polis earlier this spring. CMS secured important amendments to the bill. The new law changes how PAs practice. Instead of practicing medicine under the direct supervision of a physician, a physician assistant must now enter into a collaborative agreement with a physician. The Colorado Board of Medicine recently finalized regulations to operationalize the law (changing what was Rule 400 to the new Rule 1.15 [starting on page 21]). If you work with PAs, CMS encourages you to review COPIC’s excellent analysis that explains exactly how the new agreements work. CMS also encourages you to utilize the collaborative practice agreement template (click to download the Word document) and the performance evaluation form template (click to download the Word document) that COPIC developed and CMS supports.
Categories: Communications, ASAP