Add SS6529-a & 6505-d, Ed L; amd S3309-a, Pub Health L
Relates to certain mandatory medical education requirements; requires mandatory coursework or training relating to prescription pain medication and opiate-dependent patients.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3360
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 25, 2013
___________
Introduced by M. of A. CUSICK -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Higher Education
AN ACT to amend the education law and the public health law, in relation
to certain mandatory medical education
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 6529-a
2 to read as follows:
3 § 6529-a. Mandatory continuing education for physicians. 1.(a) Each
4 physician, licensed pursuant to this article, required to register bien-
5 nially with the department to practice in this state shall comply with
6 the provisions of the mandatory continuing education requirements,
7 except as set forth in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subdivision.
8 Physicians who do not satisfy the mandatory continuing education
9 requirements shall not practice until they have met such requirements
10 and have been issued a registration or conditional registration certif-
11 icate.
12 (b) Physicians shall be exempt from the mandatory continuing education
13 requirement for the biennial registration period during which they are
14 first licensed. In accordance with the intent of this section, adjust-
15 ments to the mandatory continuing education requirement may be granted
16 by the department for reasons of health, certified by a physician, for
17 extended active duty with the armed forces of the United States, or for
18 other good cause acceptable to the department which may prevent compli-
19 ance.
20 (c) A licensed physician not engaged in public practice as an individ-
21 ual practitioner, a partner of a partnership, a shareholder of a profes-
22 sional service corporation, or an employee of such practice units, shall
23 be exempt from the mandatory continuing education requirement upon the
24 filing of a statement with the department declaring such status. Any
25 licensee who returns to the public practice of medicine during the bien-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06414-01-3
A. 3360 2
1 nial registration period shall notify the department prior to reentering
2 the profession and shall meet such mandatory continuing education
3 requirements as shall be prescribed by regulation of the commissioner.
4 2. During each biennial registration period an applicant for registra-
5 tion shall complete a minimum of fifty hours of acceptable formal
6 continuing education, a maximum of eighteen hours of which may be self-
7 instructional coursework as approved by the department. Completion of
8 coursework or training required by sections sixty-five hundred five-b,
9 sixty-five hundred five-d, or paragraph a of subdivision three of
10 section sixty-five hundred seven of this chapter shall be applied to
11 satisfaction of the required fifty hours of acceptable formal continuing
12 education in the biennial period in which such coursework or training is
13 completed, provided that written proof satisfactory to the department
14 that such coursework or training has been completed is provided to the
15 department. A licensee who has not satisfied the mandatory continuing
16 education requirements shall not be issued a biennial registration
17 certificate by the department and shall not practice unless and until a
18 conditional registration certificate is issued as provided in subdivi-
19 sion three of this section. The individual licensee shall determine the
20 selection of courses or programs of study pursuant to subdivision four
21 of this section.
22 3. The department, in its discretion, may issue a conditional regis-
23 tration to a licensee who fails to meet the continuing education
24 requirements established in subdivision two of this section but who
25 agrees to make up any deficiencies and take any additional education
26 which the department may require. The fee for such a conditional regis-
27 tration shall be the same as, and in addition to, the fee for the bien-
28 nial registration. The duration of such conditional registration shall
29 be determined by the department. Any licensee who is notified of the
30 denial of registration for failure to submit evidence, satisfactory to
31 the department, of completion of required continuing education and who
32 practices medicine without such registration, may be subject to disci-
33 plinary proceedings pursuant to section sixty-five hundred ten of this
34 title.
35 4. As used in this section, "acceptable formal continuing education"
36 shall mean formal programs of learning which contribute to professional
37 practice and which meet the standards prescribed by regulations of the
38 commissioner. To fulfill the mandatory continuing education requirement,
39 programs must be taken from sponsors having at least one full-time
40 employee and the facilities, equipment, and financial and physical
41 resources to provide continuing education courses, approved by the
42 department, pursuant to the regulations of the commissioner.
43 5. The mandatory continuing education fee shall be forty-five dollars,
44 shall be payable on or before the first day of each biennial registra-
45 tion period, and shall be paid in addition to the biennial registration
46 fee required by section sixty-five hundred twenty-four of this article.
47 § 2. Paragraph b of subdivision 2 of section 3309-a of the public
48 health law is amended by adding a new subparagraph (v) to read as
49 follows:
50 (v) No later than January first, two thousand fourteen, report to the
51 commissioner recommendations for mandatory continuing medical education
52 relating to the treatment and management of opiate-dependent patients.
53 The recommendations for such mandatory continuing medical education
54 shall be in addition to, and not in lieu of, the mandatory coursework or
55 training required pursuant to section sixty-five hundred five-d of the
56 education law.
A. 3360 3
1 § 3. The education law is amended by adding a new section 6505-d to
2 read as follows:
3 § 6505-d. Mandatory coursework or training relating to prescription
4 pain medication and opiate-dependent patients. 1. Every prescriber, as
5 such term is defined in subdivision two of this section, shall complete
6 on a one-time basis not less than eight hours of coursework or training
7 relating to the treatment and management of opiate-dependent patients
8 that is provided by the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the
9 American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, the American Medical Associ-
10 ation, the American Osteopathic Association, the American Psychiatric
11 Association, or any other organization that the commissioner determines
12 is appropriate for the purposes of this section. Such coursework or
13 training may be completed in a classroom setting, through internet-based
14 instruction, or otherwise as approved by the commissioner. Each prescri-
15 ber shall document to the department at the time of registration or
16 re-registration that the prescriber has completed coursework or training
17 in accordance with this section. The department shall provide an
18 exemption from the requirements of this section to any prescriber who
19 requests such an exemption and who shows, to the department's satisfac-
20 tion, that such prescriber is not subject to the requirements of this
21 section pursuant to subdivision three of this section.
22 2. For the purposes of this section, the term "prescriber" shall mean
23 any practitioner that is (a) authorized to prescribe controlled
24 substances pursuant to his or her licensed professional practice, and
25 (b) registered under the Federal Controlled Substances Act and in
26 possession of a registration number from the Drug Enforcement Adminis-
27 tration, United States Department of Justice, or its successor agency.
28 3. This section shall apply to any prescriber that (a) has ten or more
29 patients being treated for chronic pain for which the prescriber has
30 prescribed the use of prescription pain medication, or (b) has at least
31 one patient being treated for chronic pain for which the prescriber has
32 prescribed a daily dose of at least 100 mg of morphine or its equiv-
33 alent.
34 § 4. This act shall take effect on the three hundred sixty-fifth day
35 after it shall have become a law.
