2026 Legislative Update
As many of you have probably noticed with the tv commercials, political mailers, and yard signs, we are in an election year here in Oregon. With every election cycle comes the opportunity to educate candidates and newly elected policy makers about our profession and the work we do day after day to take care of Oregonians – particularly in some of the most rural and underserved parts of our state!
With that in mind, OSPA’s Board and Government Affairs Committee, have already started proactively planning for the 2027 Legislative Session and are developing a robust agenda to help educate lawmakers and advance the patient centered care that PAs provide. As we continue this agenda development, we wanted to make sure that you knew that the GAC is always here to help advocate! If there are policy or legislative ideas that you have to support PAs, please do not hesitate to reach out to OSPA at admin@oregonpa.org.
With the 2027 legislative session ahead of us, we also thought it would be a good opportunity to reflect on one of our major legislative accomplishments that OSPA achieved, with the help and support of our members, during the 2026 Short Legislative Session. OSPA is proud of our advocacy to pass HB 4040 (colloquially known as the Super Mega Omnibus Bill!), which includes several technical and administrative legislative fixes in health care. A key provision that OSPA advocated for within the bill was the provision to classify PAs as Type A Attending Providers in Oregon’s Workers Compensation System – this expands injured worker’s access to care and brings PAs to a position of parity with physicians and nurse practitioners seeing workers compensation patients.
We are proud that HB 4040 passed with broad bi-partisan support with 55 aye votes in the Oregon House of Representatives and 27 ayes votes in the Oregon State Senate!
This change builds on previous work that OSPA has led in the legislature for several years to improve our profession’s ability to see and treat injured workers in Oregon without unnecessary delays and burdens. We are very proud to have that work lead to full parity in our workers compensation system now, and appreciative of all our members who showed up in the legislature to help advocate for this critical change.
In addition to advocating for this change to our workers compensation system, OSPA also proactively reviewed the over 300 bills that were introduced during the 2026 Short Legislative Session! After review by OSPA’s GAC, we were able to narrow the list of bills to monitor to just over 30 related to healthcare and our profession. You can check out the full list of bills OSPA monitored here.
This work is only possible with the support of OSPA members! We hope you will consider making a donation to the Oregon PA Political Action Committee, which helps ensure OSPA can support our legislative champions (especially during an election year!) who stand up to advocate for our profession in the Oregon Legislature. You can donate to Oregon’s PA PAC here.
PA Title Change in Oregon
Our 2024 legislative success is PA title change. Following the AAPA HOD decision to change the PA title from Physician Assistant to Physician Associate in 2021, OSPA started the process of legally changing our profession’s title for all Oregon PAs. This is now official with the passage of HB 4010. As of June 6, 2024, Oregon PAs are officially Physician Associates.
Oregon is the first state to officially change our title to Physician Associate. Join us in paving the way for all of our colleagues in enacting this exciting change.
AAPA has a great resource about the title change in Oregon. – PA Title Change Investigation: General FAQs – AAPA
In addition, OMB created information about the PA title change.
This is a change of our official title only. It does not change our scope of practice. OSPA encourages you to work with your practice administration to change business collaterals to reflect this new title. You may need to get a new ID badge, new signage or white coat. Don’t forget to update your practice website as well. You and your practice can do this on the timeline that’s appropriate for your business. We continue to retain the rights to Physician Assistant, so, while it’s outdated, it’s not incorrect or illegal to have a white coat that reads Physician Assistant.
Please feel free to contact OSPA with questions or concerns about how to implement this change at your practice.