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PA Board Overview

Texas Physician Assistant Board Group Photo


The Texas Physician Assistant Board convenes three times a year and consists of 13 members appointed by the governor for a six-year term. Seven are practicing physician assistants, including the presiding officer. Additionally, three members are licensed physicians and three are public members.

Statutorily mandated activities of the Board include: regulating physician assistants in Texas through registration; determining physician assistants’ eligibility for licensure; conducting investigations based on complaints filed against physician assistants to determine if a licensee is in violation the Texas Occupations Code (Chapter 204, the Physician Assistant Licensing Act) and/or the Board's rules; and exercising the authority to cancel, revoke, restrict, suspend or otherwise limit the license of any physician assistant upon proof of violation.

Mission

The Texas Physician Assistant Board’s mission is to protect and enhance the public’s health, safety, and welfare by establishing and maintaining standards of excellence used in regulating physician assistants and ensuring quality health care for the citizens of Texas through licensure, discipline, and education.


What is a physician assistant?

A Physician Assistant is a licensed individual who provides, within the education, training and experience of the physician assistant, medical services that are delegated by a supervising physician. Under the Occupations Code, medical services provided by a physician assistant may include, but are not limited to:

  (1) obtaining patient histories and performing physical examinations;

  (2) ordering and/or performing diagnostic and therapeutic procedures;

  (3) formulating a working diagnosis;

  (4) developing and implementing a treatment plan;

  (5) monitoring the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions;

  (6) assisting at surgery;

  (7) offering counseling and education to meet patient needs;

  (8) requesting, receiving, and signing for the receipt of pharmaceutical sample prescription medications and distributing the samples to patients in a specific practice setting where the physician assistant is authorized to prescribe pharmaceutical medications or order a drug or device, as provided by the Medical Practice Act, Chapter 157, and its subsequent amendments, or as otherwise authorized by this Act or board rule;

  (9) prescribing or ordering a drug or device as provided by the Medical Practice Act, Chapter 157; and

  (10) making appropriate referrals.