New Jersey - Volume XIII, Number 10 - October, 2004

MEDICAL BOARD PROPOSES DOUBLING LICENSING FEES, REJECTS RAISE IN RECORD REPRODUCTION FEES The State Board of Medical Examiners has approved for publication a proposed increase in physicians’ biennial licensing fees from $340 to $610. When combined with the $75 annual medical malpractice liability surcharge, the increase would double the annual costs of licensure in New Jersey.

While seeking to double the annual cost of licensure, the Board rejected a request of the Medical Society of New Jersey to allow physicians to increase their charges for retrieving and reproducing medical records. The current rate, set some fourteen years ago, provides that a physician may charge a copying fee no greater than $1.00 per page or $100.00 for the entire record, whichever is less. If the record requested is less than 10 pages, the physician may charge up to $10.00 to cover postage and the miscellaneous costs associated with retrieval of the record.

Moreover, the Board also proposes prohibiting charging a patient for a copy of the patient's record when the physician has terminated a patient from practice in accordance with Board rule, or when the physician leaves a practice and the patient requests that his or her medical care continue to be provided by that physician.

NEW AND NOVEL PROCEDURES FOCUS OF PROPOSED RULE The Medical Board has proposed a new rule establishing standards so that a physician working in a setting which is neither part of an FDA study nor governed by an Institutional Review Board will have appropriate protocols in place when performing a new or novel procedure. Patients would have to be provided with adequate information regarding the novel nature of the procedure in order to give informed consent. A new or novel procedure is defined by the Board as a diagnostic or therapeutic modality that poses a potential risk of physical or emotional harm to a patient and is not yet generally recognized as safe and effective by experts in the field by means of at least two well-controlled clinical studies. It also includes situations where a procedure which already has been generally recognized as safe and effective for its traditional use, has not been accepted as safe and effective for a new application. Physicians would be required to establish a procedural protocol prior to performing a new or novel procedure consisting of a litany of safeguards, including providing for the protection of human subjects consistent with FDA guidelines.

PROPOSALS WOULD REQUIRE LICENSURE FOR OUT-OF-STATE INTERPRETATIONS; CHANGE IN MAJOR SURGICAL PROCEDURE RULE The Medical Board has proposed a rule stating that, with limited exceptions, a consultant or consultant entity interpreting diagnostic test data/records for 10 or more patients under treatment in New Jersey annually is deemed to be rendering medical services in this State and, therefore, must be licensed by the Board. Another proposal would revise the definition of major surgical procedure to include a procedure in which an opening is made into any of the three major body cavities (abdomen, chest or head), if the facility’s credentials committee, in conjunction with the chair or chief of the relevant department or division, has delineated the procedure as one requiring a qualified first assistant. The change is deemed necessary to acknowledge that minor procedures may be made in body cavities without the risks that would make the presence of a first assistant necessary.

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