License advanced practice respiratory therapists
What changed between versions
Certified mental health assistants (CMHAs) under Chapter 4772 are added as a recognized health care professional category across dozens of sections, including controlled substance law exemptions, medical record access, telehealth eligibility, prescription drug sample authority, and board of medicine jurisdiction.
Section 2929.42, which required prosecutors to notify licensing boards of criminal convictions or guilty pleas by licensed professionals, was removed from the bill entirely.
New section 4731.2210 requires practitioners on probation for sexual misconduct with a patient or key third party, drug/alcohol abuse causing patient harm, criminal conviction causing patient harm, or inappropriate prescribing causing patient harm to provide written disclosure of their probation status to each patient before the first visit following the probationary order.
Section 4731.22 summary suspension provisions were reworked: the board can now recommend summary suspension based on verifiable information that a licensee has been charged with a felony in any state or federal court (not just clear and convincing evidence of a violation), and summary suspensions are explicitly not final appealable orders - only the final adjudicative order is appealable.
New division (Q) in section 4731.22 creates automatic suspension of an Ohio medical license for 90 days if the individual's license to practice a health care occupation is suspended, revoked, or surrendered in any other jurisdiction, giving the board time to investigate.
Section 4731.22 adds 'trafficking in persons' to the list of serious crimes that trigger automatic suspension of a medical license, and adds consumer member participation in investigation supervision by majority board vote.
Section 5123.47 adds that if a county board determines a family member acted inappropriately, the board must authorize appropriately licensed or certified providers to perform the health care tasks instead, in addition to voiding the authorization.
Section 5123.47 (in-home care for individuals with developmental disabilities) narrows the definition of 'unlicensed in-home care worker' to those working on a self-employed basis, removes the prior requirement that the worker not be employed by another entity, adds a requirement that the authorizing family member not be acting as a paid provider at the time of authorization, and simplifies the 'health care task' definition to just 'administration of medications.'
Section 3701.048 adds 'advanced practice registered nurse' as a defined term and expands the list of professionals who can receive medical records on a patient's behalf to include APNs, and expands the 'ambulatory care facility' exclusion to cover private offices of APNs in addition to physicians and dentists.
The bill number changes from HB 253 to Sub. HB 253 (substitute bill), cosponsors are added, and the department name is updated from 'department of mental health and addiction services' to 'department of mental health and addiction services behavioral health' in several sections.
