SS/SCS/HCS/HB 265 - This act modifies the law regarding the licensure of certain professions. (Section 324.014)
This act requires any board, commission, committee, council, or office within the Division of Professional Registration to notify a licensee's current employer, if the employer is known, of a change in the licensee's license or disciplinary status. Employers may also provide a list of current licensed employees and make a written request to the appropriate board to be notified when there is a change in the licensing status of any of those employees.
(Sections 324.043, 324.045, 334.001, 334.040, 334.070, 334.090, 334.099, 334.100, 334.102, 334.103, 334.108, 334.715, 536.063, 536.067, 536.070, 621.045, 621.100, and 621.110)
This act modifies disciplinary and administrative procedure provisions that apply to professions and businesses licensed by the Division of Professional Registration or by any board committee, commission or office within the Division of Professional Registration. The act also modifies the licensing requirements and disciplinary powers of the Board of Registration for the Healing Arts.
If a person who is licensed by any board, committee, commission, or office under the Division of Professional Registration does not defend against a disciplinary proceeding, the appropriate board or the Administrative Hearing Commission is required to enter a default decision against the person. The board or the Administrative Hearing Commission may set aside the default decision for good cause if the person files a motion within thirty days after the default decision.
The Administrative Hearing Commission is required to deliver the findings of fact and conclusions of law in disciplinary cases to the appropriate agency within one hundred and twenty days of the date the case became ready for decision.
BOARD OF REGISTRATION FOR THE HEALING ARTS
The Board of Registration for the Healing Arts is authorized to list certain information about individuals who are licensed by the board and applicants for licenses from the board on its website. The board is also required to disclose confidential information to applicants for licenses and licensees without a fee, if the information is less than five years old.
The board is no longer authorized to require doctors licensed in other states to take certain examinations prior to waiving the Missouri examination requirement. The board is authorized to require another examination, more education, or further training before issuing a permanent medical license to applicants who have not actively practiced clinical medicine or held a teaching position for two of the three years before their application.
Doctors are no longer required to display their certificate of registration in the office.
The board is required to make individuals applying for a license or holding a license submit to an evaluation of their skills, a multi-disciplinary evaluation, or a substance abuse evaluation, after a contested hearing, if there is reasonable cause to believe that the individual is incompetent about the medical or osteopathic profession, mentally or physically incapacitated, or excessively uses or abuses alcohol or controlled substances. The board is required to issue rules to provide for the procedures for implementing these procedures.
The disciplinary authority of the board is modified to allow the board to discipline licensees for prescribing drugs through the internet without a valid physician-patient relationship, for being listed on a sex offender registry, any conduct that is unethical or unprofessional involving a minor, for knowingly making a false statement to the board, for violating a settlement agreement with the board, and for failing to comply with a treatment program.
The board's authority to issue an emergency suspension or restriction of a licensee's license is modified to change the reasons for an emergency suspension or restriction, including: sexual conduct with a patient, sexual misconduct with a minor, possession of a controlled substance, except for record keeping violations, use of a controlled substance without a prescription, a court finding that the licensee is incapacitated, habitual intoxication or dependence on alcohol or a controlled substance or failing to comply with a treatment program, a report from a facility or professional health program that the licensee is not fit to practice, or conduct which violates the disciplinary provisions and is a serious danger to a patient or the public. The procedure for issuing emergency restrictions or suspensions is also modified. Emergency suspensions will take effect upon service to the licensee after the Administrative Hearing Commission finds that there is probable cause, rather than after a preliminary hearing before the Administrative Hearing Commission. The Administrative Hearing Commission is then required to hold a hearing within forty-five days of the board's filing of a complaint to determine if cause for discipline exists.
The board is also authorized to initiate hearings before itself when disciplining a licensee's license for certain actions. The board's disciplinary decision is appealable to the circuit court.
Doctors who prescribe any drug, controlled substance, or other treatment through the internet are required to meet certain requirements to establish that there is a valid physician-patient relationship. These requirements may be met by the prescribing physician's designee when treatment is provided in a hospital, in a hospice program, in home health services provided by a home health agency, in accordance with a collaborative practice agreement, in conjunction with a physician assistant, in consultation with another physician who has an ongoing physician-patient relationship with the patient, or in on-call or cross-coverage situations.
The board's authority to discipline athletic trainers is also modified.
(Sections 333.041, 333.042, 333.051, 333.061, 333.091, 333.151, 333.171, 436.405, 436.412, 436.445, 436.450, 436.455, and 436.456)
This act also modifies licensing requirements for funeral directors, embalmers, and funeral establishments and certain requirements for preneed funeral contracts.
The act modifies the requirements for applicants for funeral director and embalmer licenses. A general equivalency diploma, or equivalent education, as determined by the board of embalmers and funeral directors, will satisfy the requirement that a person seeking a funeral director or embalmer license have a high school diploma. An applicant for a license to practice funeral directing or embalming is no longer required to be a Missouri citizen or a resident of a county bordering Missouri. An applicant for an embalmer's license is required to complete a funeral service education program, rather than graduate from an institute of mortuary science education. An applicant for a funeral director's license is required to complete the apprenticeship in twelve consecutive months, rather than twelve months.
Also, funeral establishments will no longer be required to keep their register book or log in the preparation or embalming room. The log book must contain the name of each body that has been in the establishment, the date the body arrived, if applicable, the place the body was embalmed, and if the body was embalmed at the establishment, the date and time of the embalming and the name, signature, and license number of the embalmer.
The act changes the requirements for membership on the board of embalmers and funeral directors, reduces the number of members on the board from ten to six members, and allows a majority of the members of the board to constitute a quorum at meetings.
The act also modifies provisions that regulate preneed funeral contracts. Among other changes, the act modifies requirements for insurance-funded preneed contracts, so that these provisions apply to preneed contracts designated to be funded by deferred annuity contracts that are not classified as variable annuities and have death benefit proceeds that are never less than the sum of premiums paid. The act specifies that a trustee of a preneed trust is allowed to invest trust funds with authorized external investment advisors of a trustee, seller, or provider and allows preneed sellers and purchasers to agree to put the funds for the preneed contract in an account titled in the beneficiary's name and payable on the beneficiary's death to the seller. The act also changes the procedure for a funeral provider to receive funds after providing funeral services and merchandise and the procedure for a purchaser who want to cancel a preneed contract funded by a joint account.
This act is similar to provisions of HCS/SB 325 (2011), SCS/SB 340 (2011), HCS/HB 732 (2011), HB 668 (2011), and SCS/SB 303 (2011).
EMILY KALMER