1. (a) Physician Assistants licensed under the Physician Assistant Licensing Act shall register annually and pay a fee. A physician assistant may, on notification from the board, renew an unexpired license by submitting the required form and documents and by paying the required renewal fee to the board on or before the expiration date of the permit. The fee shall accompany the required form which legibly sets forth the licensee's name, mailing address, business address, and other necessary information prescribed by the board.

2. (b) The following documentation shall be submitted as part of the renewal process:

   1. (1) Continuing Medical Education. As a prerequisite to the annual registration of a physician assistant's license, 40 hours of continuing medical education (CME) are required to be completed in the following categories:

      1. (A) at least one-half of the hours are to be from formal courses that are designated for Category I credit by a CME sponsor approved by the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
      2. (B) The remaining hours may be from Category II composed of informal self-study, attendance at hospital lectures, grand rounds, or case conferences and shall be recorded in a manner that can be easily transmitted to the board upon request.
   2. (2) A physician assistant must report on the annual registration form the number of hours and type of continuing medical education completed during the previous year. A licensee may carry forward CME credit hours earned prior to annual registration which are in excess of the 40 hour annual requirement and such excess hours may be applied to the following years' requirements. A maximum of 80 total excess credit hours may be carried forward and shall be reported according to whether the hours are Category I and/or Category II. Excess CME credit hours of any type may not be carried forward or applied to an annual report of CME more than two years beyond the date of the annual registration following the period during which the hours were earned.

   3. (3) A physician assistant may request in writing an exemption for the following reasons:

      1. (A) catastrophic illness;
      2. (B) military service of longer than one year's duration outside the United States;
      3. (C) residence of longer than one year's duration outside the United States; or
      4. (D) good cause shown on written application of the licensee that gives satisfactory evidence to the board that the licensee is unable to comply with the requirement for continuing medical education.
   4. (4) Exemptions are subject to the approval of the licensure committee of the board.
   5. (5) A temporary exception under paragraph (3) of this subsection may not exceed one year but may be renewed annually, subject to the approval of the board.
   6. (6) This section does not prevent the board from taking disciplinary action with respect to a licensee or an applicant for a license by requiring additional hours of continuing medical education or of specific course subjects.
   7. (7) The board may require written verification of both formal and informal credits from any licensee within 30 days of request. Failure to provide such verification may result in disciplinary action by the board;
   8. (8) Unless exempted under the terms of this section, a physician assistant licensee's apparent failure to obtain and timely report the 40 hours of CME as required and provided for in this section shall result in nonrenewal of the license until such time as the physician assistant obtains and reports the required CME hours; however, the executive director of the board may issue to such a physician assistant a temporary license numbered so as to correspond to the nonrenewed license. Such a temporary license shall be issued at the direction of the executive director for a period of no longer than 90 days. A temporary license issued pursuant to this subsection may be issued to allow the board to verify the accuracy of information related to the physician assistant's CME hours and to allow the physician assistant who has not obtained or timely reported the required number of hours an opportunity to correct any deficiency so as not to require termination of ongoing patient care.
3. (c) Falsification of an affidavit or submission of false information to obtain renewal of a license shall subject a physician assistant to denial of the renewal and/or to discipline pursuant to the Physician Assistant Licensing Act, §19.

4. (d) If the renewal fee and completed application form are not received on or before the expiration date of the permit, the following penalties will be imposed:

   1. (1) one to 90 days late--$50 plus the required annual registration fee;
   2. (2) 91 days to one year late--$100 plus the required annual registration fee;
   3. (3) over one year late--license will automatically be canceled.
5. (e) The board shall not waive fees or penalties.
6. (f) The board shall stagger annual registration of physician assistants proportionally on a periodic basis.
7. (g) Practicing as a physician assistant as defined in the Physician Assistant Licensing Act without an annual registration permit for the current year as provided for in the board rules has the same force and effect as and is subject to all penalties of practicing as a physician assistant without a license.
8. (h) Physician Assistants shall inform the Board of address changes within two weeks of the effective date of the address change.

Source Note:The provisions of this §185.6 adopted to be effective January 12, 1996, 21 TexReg 109; amended to be effective October 22, 1996, 21 TexReg 9831; amended to be effective May 5, 1997, 22 TexReg 3654; amended to be effective September 15, 1997, 22 TexReg 8998; amended to be effective December 23, 1997, 22 TexReg 12492.