§ 65-5001 — Credentialing health care personnel; definitions

As used in this act unless the context requires otherwise, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them herein:
(a) "Credentialing" or "credentialed" means the formal recognition of professional or technical competence through the process of registration, licensure or other statutory regulation.
(b) "Certification" means the process by which a nongovernmental agency or association or the federal government grants recognition to an individual who has met certain predetermined qualifications specified by the nongovernmental agency or association or the federal government.
(c) "Registration" means the process by which the state identifies and lists on an official roster those persons who meet predetermined qualifications and who will be the only persons permitted to use a designated title.
(d) "Licensure" means a method of regulation by which the state grants permission to persons who meet predetermined qualifications to engage in an occupation or profession, and that to engage in such occupation or profession without a license is unlawful.
(e) "Health care personnel" means those persons whose principal functions, customarily performed for remuneration, are to render services, directly or indirectly, to individuals for the purpose of:
(1) Preventing physical, mental or emotional illness;
(2) detecting, diagnosing and treating illness;
(3) facilitating recovery from illness; or
(4) providing rehabilitative or continuing care following illness; and who are qualified by training, education or experience to do so.
(f) "Provider of health care" means an individual:
(1) Who is a direct provider of health care (including, but not limited to, a person licensed to practice medicine and surgery, licensed dentist, registered professional nurse, licensed practical nurse, licensed podiatrist, or physician assistant) in that the individual's primary current activity is the provision of health care to individuals or the administration of facilities or institutions (including medical care facilities, long-term care facilities, outpatient facilities, and health maintenance organizations) in which such care is provided and, when required by state law, the individual has received professional training in the provision of such care or in such administration and is licensed or certified for such provision or administration;
(2) who holds a fiduciary position with, or has a fiduciary interest in, any entity described in subsection (f)(3)(B) or subsection (f)(3)(D) other than an entity described in either such subsection which is also an entity described in section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code of 1954, as amended and supplemented, and which does not have as its primary purpose the delivery of health care, the conduct of research, the conduct of instruction for health professionals or the production of drugs or articles described in subsection (f)(3)(C);
(3) who receives, either directly or through a spouse, more than 1 / 5 of such person's gross annual income from any one or combination of the following:
(A) Fees or other compensation for research into or instruction in the provision of health care;
(B) entities engaged in the provision of health care or in such research or instruction;
(C) producing or supplying drugs or other articles for individuals or entities for use in the provision of or in research into or instruction in the provision of health care; or
(D) entities engaged in producing drugs or such other articles;
(4) who is a member of the immediate family of an individual described in subsection (f)(1), (f)(2) or (f)(3); or
(5) who is engaged in issuing any policy or contract of individual or group health insurance or hospital or medical service benefits. An individual shall not be considered a provider of health care solely because the individual is a member of the governing board of an entity described in subsection (f)(3)(B) or subsection (f)(3)(D).
(g) "Consumer of health care" means an individual who is not a provider of health care.
(h) "Secretary" means the secretary of health and environment.

Legislative History

L. 1980, ch. 181, § 1; L. 1986, ch. 246, § 1; L. 1987, ch. 232, § 2; L. 1988, ch. 246, § 22; L. 2004, ch. 117, § 8; July 1.