H228 - Modernize Laws Pertaining to NC Medical Board. (SL 2019-191)

Overview: S.L. 2019-191 modernizes the laws governing the North Carolina Medical Board (Board) and the practice of medicine including:

• Authorizing the Board to collect a background check fee from applicants and to remit that fee to the Department of Public Safety
• Creating an affirmative duty for licensees to report suspected sexual misconduct, fraudulent prescribing, drug diversion, or theft to the Board.
• Requiring 130 weeks of medical education for a physician license.
• Increasing civil penalties for practice outside the scope of various limited purpose licenses.
• Removing geographic limits on where the Board can meet (currently, Raleigh) and allow the Superior Court in the county where the Board is located to hear appeals of decisions not to issue a license and appeals of disciplinary action (currently, Wake County Superior Court)
• Clarifying the Board's disciplinary authority including authority over applicants and inactive licenses
• Authorizing reasonable fees for copying medical records based on the actual cost of copying.
• Creating a new criminal offense punishable as a Class C felony for sexual contact or penetration under pretext of medical treatment.
• Allowing death certificates to be completed by any physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner who took reasonable efforts to determine the patient's cause of death.
• Removing the Board's authority to set fees by regulation and maintain fees set by regulation as of June 1, 2019.

Technical changes to the composition of the Board's membership became effective October 31, 2019. The new criminal offenses became effective December 1, 2019, and applied to offenses committed on or after that date. The remainder of the act became effective October 1, 2019.