Legislature moves bill to put physician assistants under Guam Board of Medical Examiners

Senator Schleit moved to place the bill that would move physician assistants (PAs) from the Guam Board of Allied Health to the Guam Board of Medical Examiners onto the third-reading file, describing changes that update prescriptive authority and create a PA-specific regulatory structure.

Why it matters: the change would place PAs under physician-centered oversight, require controlled-substance registration and federal DEA credentials for prescriptive authority, and permit the Board of Medical Examiners to review collaborative practice agreements that pair a PA with a supervising physician.

Bill specifics: proponents said the measure creates a prescriptive-authority framework tailored for PAs (separate from clinical psychologists’ prescriptive statute) and includes automatic suspension or revocation of prescriptive authority if a PA’s federal DEA registration is suspended or revoked. The bill also authorizes the Board to adopt rules and a code of ethics and removes a committee-added requirement for on-premise supervision that earlier testimony said would be unduly restrictive.

Debate and concerns: Dr. Ricardo Eusebio testified in committee opposing the inclusion of a PA representative on the medical board, arguing scope-of-practice differences between physicians and PAs justify distinct oversight. In floor remarks, a senator summarized the concern that placing PAs on the medical board would let PAs vote on matters affecting physicians, which some in organized medicine oppose. Supporters countered that placing PAs under the medical board subjects them to physician-led oversight rather than…