North Dakota HB 1175 - Summary

• Expands scope of practice for physician assistants to include obtaining health histories, evaluating diagnoses, ordering diagnostic studies, performing limited procedures, educating patients, and pronouncing death without requiring specific delegation from a supervising physician.

• Physician assistants with less than 4,000 hours of approved practice must execute a written collaborative agreement with a supervising physician describing required collaboration and available to the board on request.

• Allows physician assistants to prescribe, dispense, and administer schedule II through V controlled substances and all legend drugs, with registration required with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

• Restricts use of "physician assistant," "certified physician assistant," and "PA-C" titles to only those licensed by the North Dakota Board of Medicine, with penalties for unauthorized use.

• Adds physician assistants to the Board of Medicine's cost recovery provisions for disciplinary proceedings, allowing the board to recover reasonable investigation and prosecution costs including attorney's fees from disciplined physician assistants.