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1998 SESSION

986294443
HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 139
Offered January 26, 1998
Requesting the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission to study the effectiveness of the Board of Medicine.
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Patron-- DeBoer
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Referred to Committee on Rules
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WHEREAS, the Board of Medicine regulates a number of professions, including physicians of medicine and osteopathy, chiropractors, podiatrists, physical therapists, physician assistants, occupational therapists, and respiratory therapists; and

WHEREAS, the activities of the Board are intense, requiring significant disciplinary investigations and hearings, as well as the processing of applications for licensure; and

WHEREAS, the advent and growth of the managed care industry has resulted and will continue to result in significant changes in the paradigm of health care; and

WHEREAS, the Board of Medicine's authority to regulate remains more administrative and quasi-judicial than focused on quality assurance; and

WHEREAS, the time and resources of the Board may be becoming stretched to meet its extensive disciplinary case load; and

WHEREAS, because of the limits on time and resources, the Board's ability to provide careful and in-depth evaluation of its disciplinary cases, while providing a licensure program designed to ensure that Virginia has high quality practitioners, may be taxed; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission be requested to study the effectiveness of the Board of Medicine. In its study the Commission shall include: (i) an evaluation of the composition of the Board to determine its appropriateness vis-?-vis the Board's evolving duties and responsibilities for health profession regulation; (ii) an assessment of the Board's appropriate role in ensuring the qualifications of physicians in this Commonwealth; and (iii) an evaluation of the Board's authority and activities to establish standards for high quality health care delivery by physicians in Virginia.

All agencies of the Commonwealth shall provide assistance to the Commission for this study, upon request.

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission shall complete its work in time to submit its findings and recommendations to the Governor and the 1999 Session of the General Assembly as provided in the procedures of the Division of Legislative Automated Systems for the processing of legislative documents.