Bill Analyses and Ratings

Bill Summary

House Bill 806 substantially reduces the regulatory requirements governing physician assistants (PAs) in Idaho. The bill’s most significant change removes the mandatory requirement that PAs maintain written collaborative practice agreements with licensed physicians, eliminating the previous rule that PAs employed by nonphysician providers must have such agreements and that PAs independently owning practices must have a collaborating physician. PAs may now own and operate independent medical practices after two years of licensure without any physician oversight agreement, and the bill removes the prior requirement that collaborating physicians ensure PA services fall within the PA’s scope of education and experience.

The bill also updates the grounds for physician discipline in Section 54-1814, replacing the specific list of supervised health professionals with the broader phrase ‘health professionals who require supervision,’ future-proofing the discipline statute as new health professional categories emerge. Section 54-1867 removes the requirement that supervision standards for bridge year physicians — recent medical school graduates who did not match into residency programs — be no less stringent than those for physician assistants, giving the Idaho State Board of Medicine greater flexibility to set supervision terms for this limited-license category. The bill takes effect July 1, 2026.

Overall Assessment

House Bill 806 is primarily relevant to the Health and Welfare metric, as it directly restructures the regulatory framework governing physician assistants and their ability to practice independently in Idaho. By eliminating mandatory physician collaboration agreements and allowing PAs to own and operate independent practices after two years of licensure, the bill expands access to healthcare services, particularly in underserved areas where physician shortages are most acute. This deregulatory approach lowers structural barriers to entry in Idaho’s healthcare market and reduces administrative burdens on PAs and the facilities that employ them.

The bill’s impact is narrowly focused on healthcare workforce regulation and does not meaningfully intersect with the other evaluated metrics, which address areas such as education, natural resources, agriculture, law and order, or family policy. The single point awarded under Health and Welfare reflects the bill’s positive but incremental contribution to healthcare access and provider autonomy, without rising to the level of a transformative policy change across the broader range of evaluated priorities.