Changes to California Law with Assembly Bill 3

Assembly Bill 3 (Bass), which amended Business and Professions Code sections 3502, 3502.1, 3516, and 3516.5, became effective on January 1, 2008. AB 3 changed items pertaining to the practice of physician assistants in California. Listed below are descriptions of several significant changes:

Ratio of Supervising Physician to Physician Assistant

Previously a supervising physician was allowed to supervise no more than two physician assistants at any given time.

Effective January 1, 2008, a supervising physician may supervise no more than four physician assistants at any one time – which was previously the ratio for underserved areas in California.

Chart Countersignature

Previously, existing regulation allowed that if the supervising physician and the physician assistant adopted protocols, the supervising physician would review and sign a minimum of 10 percent of the patient charts of the physician assistant within 30 days. Effective January 1, 2008, the state law minimum amount of 10 percent is decreased to 5 percent.

Patient Specific Authority

Previously, existing regulation required physician assistants to obtain patient-specific authority prior to writing a drug order for Controlled Substances Schedules II – V.

As amended by AB 3, Business and Professions Code section 3502.1 eliminates the requirement that a physician assistant obtain patient specific authority prior to writing a drug order for a Controlled Substance (Schedules II through V), if a physician assistant completes an approved educational course in controlled substances, and if delegated by the supervising physician. If a physician assistant chooses not to take the educational course, the requirements for patient-specific authority remain unchanged.

The Physician Assistant Committee has proposed regulations to implement this provision of AB 3. A hearing on the proposed regulations will be held at the May 1, 2008 meeting of the committee. The proposed regulations and supporting documentation can be found at www.pac.ca.gov/about_us/lawsregs/regulations.shtml.

Please check the committee's Web site frequently at www.pac.ca.gov to obtain any new updates to this information.

All physician assistants and supervising physicians should familiarize themselves with these changes to ensure they are in compliance with the physician assistant laws and regulations.