South Carolina S 236: Anesthesiologist Assistants

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 236 Text of Previous Version (Mar. 06, 2025) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 236

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

Indicates 
Matter Stricken

Indicates New Matter

Committee Report

March 6, 2025

S. 236

Introduced 
by Senators Kimbrell and Zell 

S. Printed 3/6/25--S.

Read the first time January 16, 2025

________

The committee on Senate 
Medical Affairs

To whom was referred a Bill (S. 236) to 
amend the South Carolina Code of Laws by amending Section 40-47-1250, relating 
to supervision of anesthesiologist's assistants, so as to increase the number 
of, etc., respectfully

Report:

That they have duly and carefully 
considered the same, and recommend that the same do pass:

DANIEL VERDIN for 
Committee.

_______

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY 
AMENDING SECTION 40-47-1250, RELATING TO SUPERVISION OF ANESTHESIOLOGIST'S 
ASSISTANTS, SO AS TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF ANESTHESIOLOGIST'S ASSISTANTS THAT 
AN ANESTHESIOLOGIST MAY SUPERVISE; AND BY AMENDING SECTION 40-47-1240, RELATING 
TO LICENSURE OF ANESTHESIOLOGIST'S ASSISTANTS, SO AS TO REMOVE THE REQUIREMENT 
THAT LICENSURE APPLICANTS MUST APPEAR BEFORE A MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF MEDICAL 
EXAMINERS AND PRESENT EVIDENCE OF CERTAIN RELEVANT ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS AND 
KNOWLEDGE.

Be it enacted by the 
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 
1. Section 40-47-1250 of the S.C. Code is amended 
to read:

 Section 
40-47-1250. An anesthesiologist's assistant shall practice only under the 
supervision of a physician who is actively and directly engaged in the clinical 
practice of medicine and meets the definition of being a supervising 
anesthesiologist. An anesthesiologist may not supervise more than two four anesthesiologist's 
assistants at any one time.

SECTION 
2. Section 40-47-1240 of the S.C. Code is amended 
to read:

 Section 
40-47-1240. Except as otherwise provided in this 
article, an individual must obtain a license in accordance with this article 
before the individual may practice as an anesthesiologist's assistant. The 
board shall grant a license as an anesthesiologist's assistant to an applicant 
who has:

 (1) 
submitted a completed application on forms provided by the board;

 (2) 
paid the nonrefundable application fees established in this article;

 (3) 
certified that he or she is mentally and physically able to engage safely in 
practice as an anesthesiologist's assistant;

 (4) 
submitted evidence to the board that the applicant has obtained a baccalaureate 
or higher degree from an institution of higher education accredited by an 
organization recognized by the Commission on Higher Education. This degree 
program must have included courses in these areas of study:

 (a) general biology;

 (b) general chemistry;

 (c) organic chemistry;

 (d) physics;

 (e) calculus; and

 (5) 
submitted evidence to the board that the applicant has obtained a 
graduate-level degree from a program accredited by the Commission on 
Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs, or any of the commission's 
successor organizations, and the graduate degree program must have included the 
following:

 (a) courses in the basic sciences of 
anesthesia, including general pharmacology, physiology, pathophysiology, 
anatomy, and biochemistry, and these courses must be presented as a continuum 
of didactic courses designed to teach students the foundations of human 
biological existence on which clinical correlations to anesthesia practice are 
based;

 (b) pharmacology for the anesthetic 
sciences which must include instruction in the anesthetic principles of 
pharmacology, pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, uptake and distribution, 
intravenous anesthetics and narcotics, and volatile anesthetics;

 (c) physics in anesthesia; and

 (d) fundamentals of anesthetic 
sciences, presented as a continuum of courses covering a series of topics in 
basic medical sciences with special emphasis on the effects of anesthetics on 
normal physiology and pathophysiology;

 (6) 
submitted evidence satisfactory to the board that the applicant holds current 
certification from the National Commission for Certification of 
Anesthesiologist's Assistants and that the requirements for receiving the 
certification included passage of an examination to determine the individual's 
competence to practice as an anesthesiologist's assistant;

 (7) 
no licensure, certificate, or registration as an anesthesiologist's assistant 
under current discipline, revocation, suspension, probation, or investigation 
for cause resulting from the applicant's practice as an anesthesiologist's 
assistant in any jurisdiction; and

 (8) appeared before 
a board member or board designee with his or her sponsoring anesthesiologist, 
presenting all original diplomas and certific