CLEAR

UK: no need for new medical regulator if current system is used properly

The Health Committee of the House of Commons has issued Modernising Medical Careers Third Report of Session 2007–08. Volume 1 contains the report proper which concludes in part that the Department of Health is too involved in the implementation of the controversial medical specialties reform process. Among other things, the department should "reduce its direct involvement with policy implementation, ceding control to Postgraduate Deaneries, Royal Colleges and employers." Further, proper use of the existing bodies will make it unnecessary to establish a new medical coordinating regulatory body as proposed in earlier reports. Volume II contains the written evidence received by the committee prior to mid-November 2007, Volume III the oral and written evidence received after that date. In the absence of a 2008 UK-wide approach, Scotland departed from the decisions made in England and established its own recruitment website.

State medical boards: federation reports, Public Citizen ranking

The Federation of State Medical Boards has released two reports: State of the States: Physician Regulation 2008 and Summary of 2007 Board Actions, a state-by-state analysis of medical board disciplinary actions taken during the previous year.
The Public Citizen’s Health Research Group Ranking of the Rate of State Medical Boards’ Serious Disciplinary Actions, 2005-2007 draws on the federation's disciplinary data for its annual tabulation released today.

Nevada: status report on professional regulation

Occupational and Professional Licensing, a 2008-2009 Policy and Program Report of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, lists 34 independent professional and occupational licensing boards. Various state agencies regulate an additional ten professions including real estate brokers, mortgage bankers, and interpreters and realtime captioning providers. Occupations not regulated by the state include pawnbrokers and dealers in junk and secondhand materials. The report says that most boards establish "some type of minimum qualifications" for their licensees and, in general, do not allow for reciprocal licensing. 

UK: pharmacy reports released

Two reports are now released for the pharmacy profession. An Independent Inquiry Into A Professional Body For Pharmacy concludes that there is a need for a new professional body built upon the existing Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) and that will include the "pharmacy family."

The Department of Health's white paper, Pharmacy in England: building on strengths - delivering the future, sets forth what it terms "a practical, achievable programme for future NHS pharmaceutical services."

Colorado: sunrise review on hair braiders

2008 Sunrise Review: Hair Braiders/Natural Hair Stylists is available from The Office of Policy, Research and Regulatory Reform.  State statutes require hair braiders/natural hair stylists to hold a hairstylist or cosmetologist license which requires little or no preparation in African-style braiding.The report concludes that "The current regulatory framework creates a scenario in which an unlicensed person who has been providing hair braiding/natural hairstyling services for years is in violation of the law, while a licensed hairstylist can legitimately provide these services to the public without having had a single hour of training." The only identified threat hair braiders/natural hairstylists pose to the public is the possibility of poor sanitation and disinfection practices. The recommendation is that the legislature exempt from the Barber/Cosmetology law those hair braiders/natural hairstylists who take a sanitation and disinfection seminar.

US: NPDB Public Use Data File updated

The National Practitioner Data Bank's Public Use Data File is now updated to contain information from disclosable reports received from September 1, 1990 through December 31, 2007. The data file does not include information identifying individual practitioners or reporting entities and is designed for statistical analysis. It does includes selected variables from adverse actions against physicians, dentists, and other licensed health care professionals. Those required to report this data include malpractice payers, state licensing agencies, hospitals, other entities (including federal governmental), and professional societies.

US: GAO Primary Care Professionals Report

The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released Primary Care Professionals: Recent Supply Trends, Projections, and Valuation of Services containing testimony before the Senate's Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The report suggests that a growing reliance on specialty health care services is leading to a delivery system that is unnecessarily costly and inefficient. This shift may also devalue the primary care professionals—physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and dentists— who provide the best health outcomes through preventive and other ongoing care.

Mortgage brokers: can their regulation inadvertently harm consumers?

In a recent National Bureau of Economic Research paper, economists Morris M. Kleiner and Richard M. Todd report that most elements of mortgage broker licensing sytems are not especially noteworthy for either the consumer or the professional. An interesting finding is the possibility that "restrictive bonding requirements for mortgage brokers have unintended negative consequences for many consumers." Read the abstract of Mortgage Broker Regulations That Matter: Analyzing Earnings, Employment, and Outcomes for Consumers. Picking up on this and earlier Kleiner et al work, Forbes.com has written a short piece on professional regulation.

Nurse practitioners: US overview and discussion

Chart Overview of Nurse Practitioner Scopes of Practice in the United States is just what its title says - a visual representation of current state oversight of nurse practitioners. Commentary on the chart is contained in a companion piece, Overview of Nurse Practitioner Scopes of Practice in the United States – Discussion. The researchers found that nurse practitioner scopes of practice continue to vary widely among the states, as do education and certification requirements. They suggest that "the professions and the public are ill-served when practice authorities differ dramatically among states." Policy options proposed for consideration are expanding the profession's scope of practice to match cometence, adopting uniform scope of practice laws, and increasing the number of educational programs to meet the growing demand for primary care. Both reports are published by the Center for the Health Professions, University of California, San Francisco.

Health professions report: Promising Scope of Practice Models

"One challenge facing the health care community is to develop more uniform standards for professional licensure, while retaining sufficient flexibility to meet the unique needs of each state" say the authors of Promising Scope of Practice Models for the Health Professions. They note significant variation in the state regulation of specific areas as related to four health professions: nurse practitioners and independent practice, physical therapists and the authorities to refer and diagnose, physician assistants and the prescription of controlled substances, and paramedics and the administration of intravenous infusions.
Their suggestions include establishing scope of practice review mechanisms such as those in New Mexico and Iowa, not allowing a regulatory board for one profession to oversee a different profession, and adopting measures that address the lack of uniformity among state practice acts. Examples of such measures include the Uniform Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioners Act and profession-specific model practice acts. The report is a publication of the Center for the Health Professions, University of California, San Francisco.