Last Updated: Dec 20, 2023

State Board of Medicine

Physician Assistants

The State Board of Medicine (Board) proposes to amend Chapter 18, Subchapter D (relating to physician assistants) to effectuate Act 79 of October 7, 2021. Specifically, the Board proposes amendments to §§ 18.122, 18.141—18.144, 18.151—18.154, 18.156—18.159, 18.161, 18.162, 18.171 and 18.172. The Board also proposes to delete § 18.155 (relating to satellite locations).

The proposed amendments include the following:

• placing a physician assistant on the Board with a permanent seat;
• removing the requirement that a supervising physician countersign 100% of the patient files with two exceptions: 1) during the first 12 months of the physician assistant’s practice post-graduation; or 2) during the first 12 months of the physician assistant’s practice in a new specialty;
• allowing all written agreements between physicians and physician assistants to be ''filed'' with the Board instead of ''approved'' by the Board;
• outlining appropriate supervision requirements based on the needs of the physicians, physician assistants and overall health care system; and
• increasing the number of physician assistants a supervising physician may have primary responsibility over from four to six physician assistants.

Public Comment

Interested persons are invited to submit written comments, recommendations or objections regarding this proposed rulemaking to the Board Counsel, State Board of Medicine, P.O. Box 69523, Harrisburg, PA 17106-5923, RA-STRegulatoryCounsel@pa.gov within 30 days following publication of this proposed rulemaking in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. Reference 16A-4955 (Physician Assistants) when submitting comments. 

For more information, please review the December 16, 2023 edition of the Pennsylvania Bulletin.