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Committee advances cleanup bill clarifying medical assistant duties and physician-assistant oversight
Summary
The House Government Operations Committee voted to advance HB 2044, a cleanup bill that adds physician assistants as authorized supervisors of certified medical assistants and clarifies clinics' training and competency responsibilities. Members pressed for detail on whether assistants may administer injections.
The House Government Operations Committee on March 9 advanced HB 2044, a technical cleanup that aims to align last year's medical-assistant law with current clinical practice. Sponsor Speaker Marsh told the committee the bill "brings last year's medical assistant legislation fully in line with real clinical practices," adding that it "corrects an oversight by adding physician assistants as authorized providers who may delegate tests to certified medical assistants."
Representative Renault questioned whether the change would let medical assistants administer immunizations or other injectables, asking, "can you verify that the medical assistant responsibilities is going to allow them to administer, immunizations, but potentially not other injectables because they can't calculate the dosage?" Sponsor Marsh responded that the bill does not authorize medical assistants to measure dosages independently and that delegation would remain under the supervision of a physician assistant. Marsh said he would follow up with additional detail on training and scope.
The bill also clarifies that clinics are responsible for training and verifying competency for medical assistants. Committee members had no public comments during the hearing. The clerk reported the committee vote as 11 ayes, 0 nays, and 1 present not voting; the bill moves to calendar and rules.
