Legislators in Utah are pushing for two bills they argue would broaden the scope of physician assistants and fill gaps in rural communities, and some medical groups are concerned about safety, according to a Jan. 17 report from Deseret News.
Physician assistants undergo about three years of training and 2,000 hours of clinical rotations, and they are required to work under physician supervision, the report said. In Utah, two bills, SB27 and SB28, are being proposed; the former would let them work independently and the other would allow them to independently offer mental healthcare. The sponsor of both bills, state Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, told Deseret News the bills would allow for more accessible healthcare in the state.
"When you look at COVID, it has been a real challenge for everyone throughout the world, but it's given us a new chance to deliver goods and services," he told Deseret News.
Michelle McOmber, CEO of the Utah Medical Association, told Deseret News that SB28 worries her. Her group is especially concerned about proposals to let PAs provide any medical service within their "skills and scope of competence."
"These bills in a sense make PAs super-providers even above physicians in what they can and can't do in the way they're drafted," she said in the report.
Supporters of the bill say PAs are trained to recognize when something is outside of their expertise.
Read the full report with voices from PAs here.