N.M. Stat. § 61-6-6

Current through 2024, ch. 69

Section 61-6-6 - Definitions

As used in the Medical Practice Act:

A. "approved postgraduate training program for physicians" means a program approved by the accreditation council for graduate medical education, the American osteopathic association or other board-approved program;

B. "board" means the New Mexico medical board;

C. "collaboration" means the process by which a licensed physician and a physician assistant jointly contribute to the health care and medical treatment of patients; provided that:

(1) each collaborator performs actions that the collaborator is licensed or otherwise authorized to perform; and

(2) collaboration shall not be construed to require the physical presence of the licensed physician at the time and place services are rendered;

D. "licensed physician" means a medical or osteopathic physician licensed under the Medical Practice Act to practice medicine in New Mexico;

E. "licensee" or "health care practitioner" means a medical physician, osteopathic physician, physician assistant, polysomnographic technologist, anesthesiologist assistant, naturopathic doctor, podiatric physician or naprapath licensed by the board to practice in New Mexico;

F. "medical college or school in good standing" for medical physicians means a board-approved medical college or school that has as high a standard as that required by the association of American medical colleges and the council on medical education of the American medical association; and for osteopathic physicians means a college of osteopathic medicine accredited by the commission of osteopathic college accreditation;

G. "medical student" means a student enrolled in a board-approved medical college or school in good standing;

H. "physician assistant" means a health care practitioner who is licensed by the board to practice as a physician assistant and who provides services to patients with the supervision of or in collaboration with a licensed physician as set forth in rules promulgated by the board;

I. "resident" means a graduate of a medical college or school in good standing who is in training in a board-approved and accredited residency training program in a hospital or facility affiliated with an approved hospital and who has been appointed to the position of "resident" or "fellow" for the purpose of postgraduate medical training;

J. "the practice of medicine" consists of:

(1) advertising, holding out to the public or representing in any manner that one is authorized to practice medicine or to practice health care that is under the authority of the board in this state;

(2) offering or undertaking to administer, dispense or prescribe a drug or medicine for the use of another person, except as authorized pursuant to a professional or occupational licensing statute set forth in Chapter 61 NMSA 1978;

(3) offering or undertaking to give or administer, dispense or prescribe a drug or medicine for the use of another person, except as directed by a licensed physician;

(4) offering or undertaking to perform an operation or procedure upon a person;

(5) offering or undertaking to diagnose, correct or treat in any manner or by any means, methods, devices or instrumentalities any disease, illness, pain, wound, fracture, infirmity, deformity, defect or abnormal physical or mental condition of a person;

(6) offering medical peer review, utilization review or diagnostic service of any kind that directly influences patient care, except as authorized pursuant to a professional or occupational licensing statute set forth in Chapter 61 NMSA 1978; or

(7) acting as the representative or agent of a person in doing any of the things listed in this subsection;

K. "the practice of medicine across state lines" means:

(1) the rendering of a written or otherwise documented medical opinion concerning diagnosis or treatment of a patient within this state by a physician located outside this state as a result of transmission of individual patient data by electronic, telephonic or other means from within this state to the physician or the physician's agent; or

(2) the rendering of treatment to a patient within this state by a physician located outside this state as a result of transmission of individual patient data by electronic, telephonic or other means from within this state to the physician or the physician's agent;

L. "sexual contact" means touching the primary genital area, groin, anus, buttocks or breast of a patient or allowing a patient to touch another's primary genital area, groin, anus, buttocks or breast in a manner that is commonly recognized as outside the scope of acceptable medical or health care practice;

M. "sexual penetration" means sexual intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio or anal intercourse, whether or not there is any emission, or introducing any object into the genital or anal openings of another in a manner that is commonly recognized as outside the scope of acceptable medical or health care practice; and

N. "United States" means the fifty states, its territories and possessions and the District of Columbia.

NMS § 61-6-6

1953 Comp., § 67-5-3.1, enacted by Laws 1973, ch. 361, § 1; 1982, ch. 110, § 1; 1978 Comp., § 61-6-4, recompiled as § 61-6-6 by Laws 1989, ch. 269, § 6; 1991, ch. 148, § 1; 1994, ch. 80, § 1; 1997, ch. 187, § 1; 2001, ch. 96, § 1; 2003, ch. 19, § 6; 2008, ch. 54, § 12; 2011, ch. 31, § 2; 2017, ch. 103, § 1.

Amended by 2023, c. 141,s. 2, eff. 6/13/2023.

Amended by 2021, c. 54,s. 21, eff. 6/18/2021.

Amended by 2019, c. 244,s. 16, eff. 6/14/2019.

Amended by 2017, c. 103,s. 1, eff. 6/16/2017.

Amended by 2011, c. 31,s. 2, eff. 7/1/2011.