SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
[First Reprint]
SENATE, No. 3560
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: NOVEMBER 13, 2025
The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 3560 (1R).
As reported, this bill enters New Jersey into the Interstate Physician Assistant Licensure Compact (compact).
Under the bill, to participate in this compact, a state is to: (1) license physician assistants (PAs); (2) participate in the Compact Commission’s Data System; (3) have a mechanism in place for receiving and investigating complaints against licensees and license applicants; (4) notify the Commission of any adverse action against a licensee or license applicant and the existence of significant investigative information regarding a licensee or license applicant; (5) fully implement a criminal background check requirement; (6) comply with the Rules of the Compact Commission; (7) utilize passage of a recognized national exam such as the NCCPA PANCE as a requirement for PA licensure; and (8) grant the compact privilege to a holder of a qualifying license in a participating state.
The bill provides that to exercise the compact privilege, a licensee is to: (1) have graduated from a PA program accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, Inc. or other programs authorized by Commission Rule; (2) hold current NCCPA certification; (3) have no felony or misdemeanor conviction; (4) have never had a controlled substance license, permit, or registration suspended or revoked by a State or by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration; (5) have a unique identifier as determined by Commission Rule; (6) hold a qualifying license; (7) have had no revocation of a license or limitation or restriction on any license currently held due to an adverse action; (8) if a licensee has had a limitation or restriction on a license or compact privilege due to an adverse action, two years must have elapsed from the date on which the license or compact privilege is no longer limited or restricted due to the adverse action; (9) if a compact privilege has been revoked or is limited or restricted in a participating state for conduct that would not be a basis for disciplinary action in a participating state in which the licensee is practicing or applying to practice under a compact privilege, that participating state is to have the discretion not to consider such action as an adverse action requiring the denial or removal of a compact privilege in that state; (10) notify the Compact Commission that the licensee is seeking the compact privilege in a remote state; (11) meet any jurisprudence requirement of a remote state in which the licensee is seeking to practice under the compact privilege; and (12) report to the Commission any adverse action taken by a non-participating state within 30 days after the action is taken.
As of May 2025, Washington, Utah, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Maine, Colorado, Minnesota, Tennessee, Arkansas, Montana, Kansas, and Delaware have enacted the compact.
As reported by the committee, Senate Bill No. 3560 (1R) is identical to Assembly Bill No. 4328 (1R), which was also reported by the committee on this date.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) finds that annual State expenditures will increase by an indeterminate amount for the State to enter into the Interstate Physician Assistant Licensure Compact. The net fiscal impact of the bill cannot be quantified at this point, given that the compact was activated in July 2024, and is not anticipated to begin accepting applications from physician assistants for privileges to practice until early 2026.
Factors that will affect the State’s operational expenses under the bill include costs for the Physician Assistant Advisory Committee of the State Board of Medical Examiners, within the Department of Law and Public Safety’s Division of Consumer Affairs, to align its physician
assistant licensing data with the licensure data system that all compact member states will be required to utilize under the bill.
The OLS also cannot anticipate the number of physician assistants, licensed in a compact member state but practicing in the State under a compact privilege, that the committee and the board will be required to regulate subsequent to the bill’s enactment. To the extent that the committee and the board set the fee assessed for a compact privilege to practice at an amount that approximates the State’s fee for an initial or a renewal license, any additional administrative or regulatory costs incurred by these entities will be at least partially offset.
To the extent that physician assistants who currently live in a compact member state relinquish their existing state license for a compact privilege to practice, State revenues could potentially decrease. The revenue impact of such a shift by out-of-state physician assistants will largely hinge on the comparative costs of a compact privilege to practice in the State versus State licensure.