Will the Texas Medical Board Continue?

It’s April 25, 2019 and the Texas legislature it just over 30 days away from closing out another session. This is the second session that the Texas Medical Board has come under Sunset review and still HB 1504 and SB 610 have been slowly moving through the process. The two bills are supposedly identical but rumor has it that what comes out in the end might be a surprise to us all. The thought of an expedited license for out of state physicians has been a big highlight of Representative Paddie and Senator Nichols bill, but does it go too far. And I quote “(d) An applicant described by Subsection (b) who has held a full license and been in active practice for at least five years is considered to have satisfied the examination requirements of this chapter regardless of the type of examination the applicant passed or the number of attempts within which the applicant passed the examination or any part of the examination. Wow! Will Texas really consider allowing an applicant to be licensed based on just any examination and on any number of attempts? I don’t know about you but this needs a much closer look. Hold onto your seats folks the times they are a changing!