SB1124

THE CONTEXT: A health profession regulatory board is any board that regulates one or more health professionals in Arizona. The primary purpose of a health profession regulatory board is to protect the public from unlawful, incompetent, unqualified, impaired or unprofessional conduct by practitioners of certain health occupations and professionals.

WHAT THE BILL DID: Establishes procedural requirements for health profession regulatory boards when ordering psychological or psychiatric evaluations of health professionals.

WHY IT MATTERED: The practical reason for this bill was to give patients a defined set of rights and a clear informed-consent standard. It would require a health profession regulatory board with probable cause to believe that a health professional may be unable to practice safely or competently to vote on whether to require an evaluation of the health professional, and would also require health profession regulatory boards to provide notice to a health professional at least 14 days before voting to require a psychological or psychiatric evaluation of the health professional, including a summary of the action or complaint that prompted the board to consider requiring the evaluation, rather than leave the current rule unchanged.