Governor Newsom’s Executive Order on Scope of Practice March 31, 2020 CME, News, Practice Management , Coronavirus, Covid-19, DCA 0 Yesterday, March 30th, Governor Newsom released an Executive Order which dealt with the healthcare workforce, specifically related to licensing, credentialing, and scope of practice laws. While the Executive Order dealt with relieving administrative burdens such as credentialing and radiological permitting, the Executive Order also gave the Department of Consumer Affairs the ability to waive licensing and scope of practice laws for licensees, but didn’t instruct the Department as to which rules they were to specifically waive. The Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) then scheduled a follow up call with advocates and professional associations to expand upon the Executive Order and the details of that call are contained in this memo. Most importantly to note, there is no lifting of the supervision requirement for PAs, NPs or other allied health professionals. The supervision requirement is still in place at this time. Specifically, the DCA will execute 5 waivers which have already been vetted with their respective licensing boards and the Department. Any further waivers will have to be requested by the appropriate trade associations or other interested parties. After the request is made, the Department will go through their internal review process with their directors and the applicable licensing boards and then post any approved waiver requests on their website. All of the waivers will be in place only for the duration of the declared state of emergency unless otherwise noted. The 5 waivers already approved are as follows: Waiver of any CME or examination requirements for the renewal of licenses that expire from March 31st through June 30th and allow up to 6 months after the state of emergency declaration is lifted for licensees to make up these requirements. This applies to physicians as well as other licensees who are due for renewal during this window. Reinstatement of Inactive/Retired licenses (who have been retired or inactive for 5 years or less) without the CME or other requirements and an abbreviated license application to bring these practitioners into the workforce quickly. Allow nursing students to use their time working during this crisis to count towards their clinical hours, as clinical rotations through their educational institutions have been suspended through this crisis. Remove the current ratios in place for physicians supervising nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Physicians can now supervise the number of NPs or PAs they can competently and confidently supervise without a statutory ratio in place. Allowing residents who complete their first year of residency by June of this year to become fully licensed without meeting the new 36 month residency requirement. We will keep you updated should any other waivers be approved in the coming weeks and provide summaries of those waivers. Megan Allred Legislative Advocate California Medical Association Comments are closed.
