HB 523

Department of Veterans Services; Department of Health Professions; military medical personnel; program. Expands the definition of 'military medical personnel' for the purposes of the program established by the Department of Veterans Services, in collaboration with the Department of Health Professions, that allows such military medical personnel to practice and perform certain delegated acts that constitute the practice of medicine or nursing to include other enlisted service members who have successfully completed appropriate technical training and any required certifications and competently practiced their military occupational specialty in the United States Military Health System and who were discharged or released from such service under conditions other than dishonorable. Under current law, 'military medical personnel' means an individual who has recently served as a medic in the United States Army, medical technician in the United States Air Force, medical personnel in the United States Space Force, or corpsman in the United States Navy or the United States Coast Guard. The bill also allows such military medical personnel participating in the program to be supervised by any medical professional licensed by the Board of Medicine in the appropriate field. Current law allows such personnel to be supervised by a physician or podiatrist. The bill also provides that if a former service member's training and practice qualify him to practice and perform certain acts that constitute the practice of medicine or nursing, but he lacks the academic degree usually required for such employment, he may practice and perform such acts for up to three years while he completes requirements for the relevant degree. To facilitate this process, the bill requires the Virginia Community College System, in partnership with the Military Medics and Corpsmen Program and the Virginia Health Workforce and Development Authority, to develop procedures to facilitate the transfer or award of academic credits for completion of relevant military health coursework and technical training during a service member's time in service.