Iowa Code
Chapter 148C - PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS
Section 148C.4 - Services performed by physician assistants.

148C.4 Services performed by physician assistants.
1. A physician assistant may provide any legal medical service for which the physician assistant has been prepared by the physician assistant’s education, training, or experience and is competent to perform. For the purposes of this section, “legal medical service for which the physician assistant has been prepared by the physician assistant’s education, training, or experience and is competent to perform” includes but is not limited to making a pronouncement of death for a patient whose death is anticipated if the death occurs in a licensed hospital, a licensed health care facility, a correctional institution listed in section 904.102, a Medicare-certified home health agency, or a Medicare-certified hospice program or facility.
2. a. Notwithstanding subsection 1, a physician assistant licensed pursuant to this chapter or authorized to practice in any other state or federal jurisdiction who voluntarily and gratuitously, and other than in the ordinary course of the physician assistant’s employment or practice, responds to a need for medical care created by an emergency or a state or local disaster may render such care that the physician assistant is able to provide without supervision as described in this section or with such supervision as is available.
b. A physician who supervises a physician assistant providing medical care pursuant to this subsection shall not be required to meet the requirements of rules adopted pursuant to section 148C.3, subsection 2, relating to supervision by physicians. A physician providing physician assistant supervision pursuant to this subsection or a physician assistant, who voluntarily and gratuitously, and other than in the ordinary course of the physician assistant’s employment or practice, responds to a need for medical care created by an emergency or a state or local disaster shall not be subject to criminal liability by reason of having issued or executed the orders for such care, and shall not be liable for civil damages for acts or omissions relating to the issuance or execution of the orders unless the acts or omissions constitute recklessness.
3. The degree of collaboration between a physician assistant and the appropriate member of a health care team shall be determined at the practice level, and may involve decisions made by the medical group, hospital service, supervising physician, or employer of the physician assistant, or the credentialing and privileging system of a licensed health care facility. A physician shall be accessible at all times for consultation with a physician assistant unless the physician assistant is providing emergency medical services pursuant to
645 IAC 327.1(1)(n)
. The supervising physician shall have ultimate responsibility for determining the medical care provided by the supervising physician-physician assistant team.
[C73, 75, 77, 79, §148B.4; C81, §148C.4]
88 Acts, ch 1225, §18; 2001 Acts, ch 113, §1; 2003 Acts, ch 93, §10, 14; 2009 Acts, ch 41, §263; 2017 Acts, ch 96, §2; 2020 Acts, ch 1020, §6, 7, 12; 2021 Acts, ch 80, §80
Referred to in §147.107, 489.1102, 489.1105, 496C.4, 496C.7
Subsection 1 amended

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