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Oregon Medical Board seeks repeal of underused volunteer emeritus license in housekeeping bill
Summary
At a public hearing the Oregon Medical Board told the House committee Senate Bill 873 would repeal a rarely used volunteer emeritus license for out‑of‑state clinicians; the board said a 2022 authorization now handles short volunteer practice and no one currently holds the license.
The House Committee on Behavioral Health and Healthcare held a public hearing April 22 on Senate Bill 873, a measure from the Oregon Medical Board to repeal the board’s volunteer emeritus license.
Elizabeth Ross, legislative and policy analyst for the Oregon Medical Board, told the committee the board licenses and regulates more than 27,000 practitioners in Oregon and described SB 873 as a housekeeping measure. "Currently, no one holds this license and we'd like to stop maintaining it within our current systems and going forward," Ross said.
Ross said the volunteer emeritus license was created to allow out‑of‑state clinicians to volunteer under limited conditions — typically at public health facilities or charitable clinics — but usage has dwindled. She noted that in 2022 the Legislature enacted a different, simpler authorization (House Bill 4096) that allows out‑of‑state providers to volunteer in Oregon for up to 30 days through a one‑page process. Ross told members the 2022 change reduced the need for the separate volunteer emeritus status.
Committee members asked who could use the license, whether repealing it would remove a useful option in emergencies, and what fiscal savings the repeal would yield. Ross said the 2022 temporary emergency authorization would allow quick licensing during declared emergencies and that the board could process those temporary authorizations quickly. When asked about dollar savings, Ross said it was difficult to quantify how much removing a single status from licensing systems would save and that no figure was available at the hearing.
No organized opposition was reported in committee testimony, and the Senate had passed the bill unanimously, Ross said. The committee did not take a vote during the hearing.
