New Jersey - Volume VII, Number 3 - March, 1998

WARRANTLESS SEARCHES OF DOCTORS' OFFICE TO CONTINUE IF MEDICAL BOARD HAS ITS WAY.

Volume VII Number 3 - March 12, 1998 - Single Issue Price: $5.00

***********************REGULATORY UPDATE*************************

In our December 1997 Statlaw we reported that the State Board of Medical Examiners ("Medical Board") had voted to adopt surgical and anesthesia standards for physician offices and to propose rules governing physician delegation of tasks to diagnostic radiologic technologists and nuclear medicine technologists. Those regulations have yet to be published. The legislature and other regulatory agencies have been busy, however.

Effective March 19, 1998, any physician or podiatrist maintaining a professional practice in New Jersey must have malpractice liability insurance. If such coverage is not available, the practitioner must be covered by a letter of credit for at least the minimum amount to be set by regulation of the Medical Board. Also recently enacted is a law requiring that all electrologists be licensed and regulated by a committee of the Medical Board.

The Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services, which administers the state Medicaid program, has proposed a rule that would result in a Medicaid provider becoming a guarantor for all "downstream" entities providing services to Medicaid patients on the provider's behalf. The rule would require that a Medicaid provider who employs, contracts or subcontracts with persons or entities who are not themselves Medicaid providers, must ensure that these non-Medicaid providers, as well as any equipment and/or vehicles used in providing Medicaid services, satisfy all applicable Federal and State licensure and certification requirements. If the services, entities, vehicles or equipment are deficient, the Medicaid provider may be required to repay any monies Medicaid has paid for the non-complying services and may be subject to civil or criminal sanctions and/or penalties. The Medicaid provider's responsibility for these contracted services includes ascertaining that all credentials are provided and current.

The State Board of Optometrists has adopted a rule allowing an optometrist to be identified in advertisements as an "Optometric Physician." The Optometric Board first obtained an opinion of the State Attorney General that, unlike the term "medical doctor," the use of the term "physician" by certain limited license practitioners is not barred. Further, the AG noted, in 1991, the statutory definition of optometry was amended to include the use and prescription of topical pharmaceutical agents, thereby broadening the scope of optometry to encompass a method of treatment formerly reserved to the practice of medicine, while also making clear that optometrists are to be held to a standard of care commensurate with other medical care providers. The Optometric Board rejected a recommendation that any optometrist advertising as an "optometric physician" also state in conspicuous print that he or she is not a doctor of medicine and surgery, finding such a disclaimer to be unnecessary, confusing, and unfair since no such requirement is imposed on chiropractic physicians or podiatric physicians.

The State Board of Pharmacy has proposed rules allowing a pharmacist to dispense replacement soft contact lenses directly to the consumer pursuant to a current legal prescription where the prescriber has expressly authorized the refill and the dispensed lens conforms exactly to the prescription.

Information on these and other matters, can be found at the Kern Augustine Conroy & Schoppmann web site - http://www.drlaw.com. For information concerning the expanded Physician Advocacy Program™ providing legal representation whenever the Board of Medical Examiners seeks to search your office, call Linda Somers at 908-704-8585.