Physician FAQs

Yes. Prior to and each and every time a physician or advanced practice professional (such as a physician assistant or advanced practice registered nurse acting under a physician’s delegated authority) prescribes opioids, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, or carisoprodol, the patient’s prescribing history must be reviewed by the physician or advanced practice professional issuing the prescription.  For providers seeking information on how to access the PMP, please review Pharmacy Board PMP information at https://www.pharmacy.texas.gov/pmp/.

Refills issued to the patient pursuant to a valid prescription and without any reauthorization from the prescriber do not require a PMP check by the prescriber.  However, if a prescriber is issuing a prescription for a patient that is unchanged from a previous prescription issued to the patient (often referred to as a refill), then this would be considered a new prescription and would require a PMP check.

A physician generally has the right to terminate the doctor/patient relationship. The doctor should give adequate notice to the patient and provide required care until the patient has had reasonable time to find a new physician. Adequate notice will depend on the circumstances.

All entities in which a physician assistant has an ownership interest, in which the physician assistant performs a professional service that falls within the scope of physician assistant practice, must register annually, regardless of percent of ownership or when they were formed.

It depends upon when the agreement was executed. For prescriptive authority agreements entered into prior to September 1, 2019, factors such as the type of delegate licensure and amount of time spent practicing under an agreement determined the required frequency and manner of meetings. If your agreement was entered into prior to September 1, 2019, you may want to seek the advice of private legal counsel to better understand the law’s requirements.

For prescriptive authority agreements entered on or after September 1, 2019, the law changed so that all prescriptive authority agreements must be conducted on at least a monthly basis, no matter the length of time that the physicians have been practicing with the delegates under the agreement.