Podiatrists; Practice of physical therapy by referral from a Podiatrist

Subject:

Podiatrists; Practice of physical therapy by referral from a Podiatrist; N.C.G.S. 90-270.35(4).

Requested By:

E. Joseph Daniels, D.P.M., AACFS President, North Carolina Board of Podiatry Examiners

Question:

May a Podiatrist prescribe or refer physical therapy to a licensed physical therapist for the benefit of the podiatrist’s patients?

Conclusion:

Yes.

N.C.G.S. 90-270.35(4) makes it unlawful for any person to "practice physical therapy except by referral from a licensed medical doctor or dentist."

Presently, licensed physical therapists in North Carolina are reluctant to accept prescriptions or referral for physical therapy from podiatrists because of an informal opinion issued by this Office on February 10, 1978 concluding that a podiatrist is not a "medical doctor". For reasons which follow, we hereby overrule the informal 1978 opinion and conclude that a podiatrist is a "medical doctor" within the meaning and intent of N.C.G.S. 90-270.35(4).

Chapter 90 of the North Carolina General Statutes titled Medicine and Allied Occupations, does not anywhere define the term "medical doctor". We must, therefore, look elsewhere to determine precisely what the Legislature meant in using the term "medical doctor" in N.C.G.S. 90270.35(4).

Podiatrists are licensed by the State of North Carolina to practice podiatry. Podiatry is defined in

N.C.G.S. 90-202.2 as "(t)he surgical or medical or mechanical treatment of all ailments of the human foot, except the amputation of the foot or toes or the administration of an anesthetic other than local and except the correction of a club foot deformity and triple arthrodesis." Podiatrists by statute are authorized to prescribe medicine in the treatment of the human foot. N.C.G.S. 90108(a)(1). Licensed podiatrists may, therefore, medically and surgically treat the human foot. Moreover, in order to be licensed as a podiatrist one must be "a graduate of a college of podiatric medicine". N.C.G.S. 90-202.5. Upon graduation from a college of podiatric medicine accredited by the National Council of Education of American Podiatry Association an individual receives the degree of Doctor of Podiatric Medicine.

We conclude, therefore, that a licensed podiatrist in North Carolina is in fact a "medical doctor" as that term is used in N.C.G.S. 90-270.35(4) and may prescribe or refer physical therapy to licensed physical therapists for the benefit of their patients.

Rufus L. Edmisten
Attorney General

Andrew A. Vanore, Jr.
Senior Deputy Attorney General