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TO AMEND SECTION 40-47-20, AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE DEFINITION OF TERMS USED IN CONNECTION WITH THE LICENSURE AND REGULATION OF PHYSICIANS, SO AS TO DELETE CERTAIN ACTIVITIES THAT CONSTITUTE THE "PRACTICE OF MEDICINE", INCLUDING RENDERING A WRITTEN MEDICAL OPINION CONCERNING THE DIAGNOSIS OR TREATMENT OF A PATIENT, OR RENDERING ACTUAL TREATMENT, BY AN OUT-OF-STATE PHYSICIAN AS A RESULT OF TRANSMITTING INDIVIDUAL PATIENT DATA FROM THIS STATE BY ELECTRONIC MEANS TO THE PHYSICIAN, RENDERING A DETERMINATION OF MEDICAL NECESSITY AFFECTING THE DIAGNOSIS OR TREATMENT OF A PATIENT, AND TESTIFYING AS A PHYSICIAN IN A COURT PROCEEDING IN THIS STATE AS A MEDICAL EXPERT.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Section 40-47-20(36) of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 385 of 2006, is further amended to read:
"(36) 'Practice of Medicine' means:
(a) advertising, holding out to the public or representing in any manner that one is authorized to practice medicine in this State;
(b) offering or undertaking to prescribe, order, give, or administer any drug or medicine for the use of any other person;
(c) offering or undertaking to prevent or to diagnose, correct or treat in any manner, or by any means, methods, or devices, disease, illness, pain, wound, fracture, infirmity, defect, or abnormal physical or mental condition of a person, including the management or pregnancy and parturition;
(d) offering or undertaking to perform any surgical operation upon a person;
(e) rendering a written or otherwise documented medical opinion concerning the diagnosis or treatment of a patient or the actual rendering of treatment to a patient within this State by a physician located outside the State as a result of transmission of individual patient data by electronic or other means from within a state to such physician or his or her agent;
(f) rendering a determination of medical necessity or a decision affecting the diagnosis and/or treatment of a patient;
(g) using the designation Doctor, Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Physician, Surgeon, Physician and Surgeon, Dr., M.D., D.O., or any combination of these in the conduct of any occupation or profession pertaining to the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of human disease or condition unless such a designation additionally contains the description of another branch of the healing arts for which one holds a valid license in this State that is applicable to the clinical setting; and
(h) testifying as a physician in an administrative, civil, or criminal proceeding in this State by expressing an expert medical opinion."
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
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