05/19/2021

Medical Board's May Meeting Highlights

The State Medical Board of Ohio met on May 12, 2021.  Below are highlights from the meeting:

Podiatric Scope of Practice

On May 10, medical board staff went before Ohio’s Joint Commission on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) to provide testimony about why the board issued a (highly contested) podiatric scope determination through a letter to a licensee instead of going through Ohio’s formal rule process. The members of the JCARR panel did not issue a determination, but did suggest that the medical board revisit this issue before returning in front of the panel in June.

At the board’s May 12 meeting, the board considered this issue and voted to open and review the podiatric scope of practice rules. This action will allow a formal rules’ hearing process and will include testimony from all interested parties.

OSMA has been following this issue since it arose. For more detailed information on this topic, see OSMA’s next edition of Ohio Medicine.

Medical Marijuana

Patients suffering from Huntington’s disease, spasticity, and terminal illness will soon be able to legally treat their conditions with medical marijuana. On May 12, the State Medical Board of Ohio’s (SMBO) Medical Marijuana Committee voted to recommend adding those ailments as qualifying conditions under the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program (MMCP). The full medical board will consider the Committee’s recommendations at the June board meeting and vote whether to include those conditions as qualifying conditions.

The panel also recommended the rejection of petitions to add autism, panic disorder with agoraphobia (anxiety), restless leg syndrome, and persistent muscle spasms to the list of qualifying conditions.

Recently, there have been misleading media reports implying that the board added three new conditions (complex regional pain syndrome, chronic migraines, and arthritis) to the qualifying conditions list. On April 29, the medical board issued a memo clarifying that the board’s Medical Marijuana Committee reviewed the petitions from the 2020 petition period and determined that complex regional pain syndrome, chronic migraines, and arthritis were already covered by the existing qualifying condition of pain that is either chronic or intractable.