WEST VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
2023 REGULAR SESSION
Introduced House Bill 3317
By Delegates Summers and Tully [Introduced February 07, 2023; Referred to the Committee on Health and Human Resources]
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1 A BILL to amend and reenact §30-1-7a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to
2 removing specific continuing education requirements.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO ALL STATE BOARDS OF
EXAMINATION OR REGISTRATION REFERRED TO IN CHAPTER.
§30-1-7a. Continuing education.
1 (a) A board referred to in this chapter shall establish continuing education requirements as
2 a prerequisite to license renewal. A board shall develop continuing education criteria appropriate
3 to its discipline, which shall include, but not be limited to, course content, course approval, hours
4 required and reporting periods.
5 (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code or the provision of a legislative rule to
6 the contrary, each person issued a an initial license to practice medicine and surgery, a license to
7 practice podiatry or licensed as a physician assistant by the West Virginia Board of Medicine; each
8 person issued a license to practice dentistry by the West Virginia Board of Dental Examiners, each
9 person issued a license to practice optometry by the West Virginia Board of Optometry, each
10 person licensed as a pharmacist by the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy, each person licensed to
11 practice registered professional nursing or licensed as an advanced nurse practitioner by the West
12 Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses, each person licensed as a
13 licensed practical nurse by the West Virginia State Board of Examiners for Licensed Practical
14 Nurses and each person licensed to practice medicine and surgery as an osteopathic physician
15 and surgeon or licensed or certified as an osteopathic as physician assistant by the West Virginia
16 Board of Osteopathy shall complete drug diversion training, best-practice prescribing of controlled
17 substances training, and training on prescribing and administration of an opioid antagonist. and
18 other relevant trainings as promulgated by the appropriate licensing board, as the trainings are
19 established by his or her respective licensing board, if that person prescribes, administers or
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20 dispenses a controlled substance, as that term is defined in section one hundred one, article one,
21 chapter sixty-a of this code.
22 (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code or the provision of any legislative rule
23 to the contrary, the West Virginia Board of Medicine, the West Virginia Board of Dental Examiners,
24 the West Virginia Board of Optometry, the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy, the West Virginia
25 Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses, the West Virginia State Board of
26 Examiners for Licensed Practical Nurses and the West Virginia Board of Osteopathy shall
27 establish continuing education requirements and criteria appropriate to their respective discipline
28 on the subject of drug diversion training, best-practice prescribing of controlled substances
29 training and prescribing and administration of an opioid antagonist training for each person issued
30 a license or certificate by their respective board who prescribes, administers or dispenses a
31 controlled substance, as that term is defined in section one hundred one, article one, chapter sixty-
32 a of this code, and shall develop a certification form pursuant to subdivision (b)(2) of this section.
33 (2) Each person who receives his or her initial license or certificate from any of the boards
34 set forth in subsection (b) of this section shall complete the continuing education requirements set
35 forth in subsection (b) of this section within one year of receiving his or her initial license from that
36 board and each person licensed or certified by any of the boards set forth in subsection (b) of this
37 section who has held his or her license or certificate for longer than one year shall complete the
38 continuing education requirements set forth in subsection (b) of this section as a prerequisite to
39 each license renewal: Provided, That a person subject to subsection (b) of this section may waive
40 the continuing education requirements for license renewal set forth in subsection (b) of this section
41 if he or she completes and submits to his or her licensing board a certification form developed by
42 his or her licensing board attesting that he or she has not prescribed, administered or dispensed a
43 controlled substance, as that term is defined in section one hundred one, article one, chapter sixty-
44 a of this code, during the entire applicable reporting period.
45 (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code or the provision of any legislative rule
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46 to the contrary, each person licensed to practice registered professional nursing or licensed as an
47 advanced nurse practitioner by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional
48 Nurses, each person licensed as a licensed practical nurse by the West Virginia State Board of
49 Examiners for Licensed Practical Nurses, each person licensed to practice psychology by the
50 Board of Examiners of Psychologists, each person licensed to practice social work by the West
51 Virginia Board of Social Work and each person licensed to practice professional counseling by the
52 West Virginia Board of Examiners in Counseling shall complete two hours of continuing education
53 for each reporting period on mental health conditions common to veterans and family members of
54 veterans, as the continuing education is established by his or her respective licensing board. In
55 cooperation with the Secretary of the Department of Veterans’ Assistance, the continuing
56 education shall include training on inquiring about whether the patients are veterans or family
57 members of veterans, and screening for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, risk of
58 suicide, depression and grief and prevention of suicide. The two hours shall be part of the total
59 hours of continuing education required by each board and not two additional hours NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to remove specific continuing education requirements.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.
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Statutes affected:
Committee Substitute: 30-1-7a
Enrolled Committee Substitute: 30-1-7a
Introduced Version: 30-1-7a