Privileges, obligations, and status of osteopathic physicians.

(1) Osteopathic physicians shall observe and be subject to all state and municipal regulations relative to reporting births and deaths and all matters pertaining to the public health, with equal rights and obligations as physicians of other schools of medicine, and such reports shall be accepted by the officers of the departments to which the same are made.

(2) Osteopathic physicians licensed under this chapter shall have the same rights as physicians and surgeons of other schools of medicine with respect to the treatment of cases or holding of offices in public institutions.

(3) It is the intent and purpose of this chapter to grant to osteopathic physicians the right to practice as taught and practiced in the standard colleges of osteopathic medicine.

(4)(a) For the purposes of this subsection, “licensee” means a physician licensed under chapter 458 or an osteopathic physician licensed under this chapter.

(b) It is the policy of this state that osteopathic physicians licensed under this chapter be accorded equal professional status and privileges as physicians licensed under chapter 458.

(c) Whenever the health facility staffing requirements for staff or department privileges mandate that the licensee who has been granted privileges be certified by an approved specialty board of the American Board of Medical Specialties, the health facility staffing requirements or department privileges shall be construed to also include a licensee who has achieved certification by an equivalent board of the American Osteopathic Association.

(d) Whenever an entity that contracts with licensees to provide managed care or risk-based care requires that the licensee who is responsible for the contract be certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties, the contract reference to the American Board of Medical Specialties shall be construed to also include the American Osteopathic Association when the contracting licensee is an osteopathic physician.

(e) Nothing in this subsection shall preclude an entity that contracts with licensees to provide managed care or risk-based care from establishing controls that are designed to ensure the achievement and maintenance of high standards of professional and ethical practices, including a provision that all members of the licensee’s staff be required to demonstrate their ability to perform surgical and other procedures competently and to the satisfaction of an appropriate committee or committees at the time of original application for appointment and at least every 2 years thereafter.

(f) No health facility may adopt written bylaws in accordance with legal requirements that in any way are construed to circumvent the intent of the Legislature or any other nondiscriminatory provisions contained in either chapter 458 or this chapter.