North Dakota sets rules for physician assistant compact privileges

Participating states would recognize an eligible physician assistant’s license-based privilege to provide services to patients in another participating state. The privilege covers physician assistants with a qualifying, unrestricted license who practice in a participating state where they are not separately licensed. The physician assistant must meet education, certification, criminal-history, disciplinary, identification, notification, and state-law testing requirements. The remote state may charge a privilege fee and impose its own rules for physician assistant practice and controlled-substance prescribing. The state where the patient is located keeps authority over the practice and may take action against the privilege. The compact would take effect when its law has been enacted in seven participating states. This Act would take effect when filed with the secretary of state.

The compact commission and participating state boards would share licensing and investigation information and could suspend, restrict, or remove a compact privilege. The rules cover physician assistants using a compact privilege, their qualifying licenses, participating state boards, and the compact commission. A physician assistant generally must have no relevant conviction, license revocation, or current restriction and must report adverse action by a nonparticipating state within 30 days. A remote state may act against a privilege to protect public health and safety, but it may not discipline lawful conduct performed in another state. An adverse action against the qualifying license would deactivate compact privileges in remote states until restrictions are removed and two years have passed. The compact commission would begin when the compact becomes effective, and information-sharing and enforcement duties would apply while a state participates in the compact.

North Dakota’s Board of Medicine would handle compact-related fees and would recognize compact privileges when applying physician assistant licensing rules and protected titles. The provisions apply to physician assistants serving North Dakota patients, the North Dakota Board of Medicine, and people using physician assistant titles. The board must pay compact commission fees through its own funding mechanism rather than request money from the general fund. A person may use the title “physician assistant” or “P.A.” if licensed under North Dakota law or privileged under the compact. Physician assistants may not perform services reserved for other licensed professions, and compact rules cannot override North Dakota limits on the medical services they may perform. These provisions would take effect when the Act is filed with the secretary of state, but compact privileges would depend on the compact’s separate seven-state effective-date requirement.