§453-5.3 - Physician assistant; licensure required.
§453-5.3 Physician assistant; licensure required. (a) The Hawaii medical board shall require each person practicing medicine under the supervision of a physician or osteopathic physician, other than a person licensed under section 453-3, to be licensed as a physician assistant. A person who is trained to do only a very limited number of diagnostic or therapeutic procedures under the direction of a physician or osteopathic physician shall not be deemed a practitioner of medicine or osteopathy and therefore does not require licensure under this section.
(b) The board shall establish medical educational and training standards with which a person applying for licensure as a physician assistant shall comply. The standards shall be at least equal to recognized national education and training standards for physician assistants.
(c) Upon satisfactory proof of compliance with the required medical educational and training standards, the board may grant state licensure to a person who has been granted certification based upon passage of a national certifying examination and who holds a current certificate from the national certifying entity approved by the board.
(d) The board shall approve temporary licensure of an applicant under this section. The applicant shall have graduated from a board approved training program within twelve months of the date of application and never taken a national certifying examination approved by the board but otherwise meets the requirements of this section. The applicant shall file a complete application with the board and pay all required fees. If the applicant fails to apply for, or to take, the first examination scheduled by the board following the issuance of the temporary license, fails to pass the examination, or fails to receive licensure, all privileges under this section shall automatically cease upon written notification sent to the applicant by the board. A temporary license shall be issued only once to each person.
(e) Prior to practicing under temporary licensure, holders of temporary licenses shall notify the board in writing of any and all supervising physicians or osteopathic physicians under whom they will be performing services.
(f) The board shall establish the degree of supervision required by the supervising physician or osteopathic physician when a physician assistant performs a service within the practice of medicine. A physician or osteopathic physician who does not supervise a physician assistant's services at the degree required by the board shall be deemed to have engaged in professional misconduct.
(g) Any license of a physician assistant may be denied, not renewed, revoked, limited, or suspended under section 453-8.
(h) The board shall establish the application procedure, medical educational and training standards, examination requirement, if any, and degrees of supervision by rule.
(i) Every person holding a license under this section shall apply for renewal with the board no later than January 31 of each even-numbered year and pay a renewal fee. Failure to apply for renewal shall constitute a forfeiture of the license that may only be restored upon written application for restoration and payment to the board of a restoration fee.
(j) A license that has been forfeited for one renewal term shall be automatically terminated and cannot be restored. A new application for licensure shall be required. [L 1984, c 168, pt of §1; am L 1986, c 144, §1; am L 1988, c 110, §4; am L 1989, c 181, §2; am L 1991, c 52, §1; am L 1999, c 90, §3; am L 2008, c 5, §8 and c 9, §3]