GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
1997 SESSION

SESSION LAW 1997-508
SENATE BILL 483

AN ACT TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT PAID TO PHYSICIANS TO READ X-RAY FILMS FOR THE DUSTY TRADES PROGRAM.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  G.S. 97-72 reads as rewritten:
"§ 97‑72.  Appointment of advisory medical committee; terms of office; duties and functions; salaries and expenses.
(a)	There shall be an advisory medical committee consisting of three members, who shall be licensed physicians in good professional standing and peculiarly qualified in the diagnosis or treatment of occupational diseases.  They shall be appointed by the Industrial Commission with the approval of the Governor, and one of them shall be designated as chairman of the committee by the Industrial Commission.  The members of committee shall be appointed to serve terms as follows: one for a term of two years, one for a term of four years, and one for a term of six years.  Upon the expiration of each term as above mentioned the Industrial Commission shall appoint a successor for a term of six years.  The function of the committee shall be to conduct examinations and make reports as required by G.S. 97-61.1 through 97-61.6 and 97‑68 through 97‑71, and to assist in any postmortem examinations provided for in G.S. 97‑67 when so directed by the Industrial Commission.  Members of the committee shall devote to the duties of the office so much of their time as may be required in the conducting of examinations with reasonable promptness, and they shall attend hearings as scheduled by the Industrial Commission when their attendance is desired for the purpose of examining and cross‑examining them respecting any report or reports made by them.
(b)	The members of the advisory medical committee shall be paid one hundred dollars ($100.00) per month plus not more than forty dollars ($40.00) per film examined.  The fee per film shall be established by the Secretary of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, as guided by the current Medicaid/Medicare reimbursement schedules for North Carolina.
(c)	Notwithstanding any other provision of this Article, the Industrial Commission, in its discretion, may designate a qualified physician who is not a member of the advisory medical committee to perform an examination of an employee who has filed a claim for benefits for asbestosis or silicosis.  This physician shall file his reports in the same manner a member of the advisory medical committee files reports; and these reports shall be deemed reports of the advisory medical committee."
Section 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 28th day of August, 1997.
s/	Marc Basnight
President Pro Tempore of the Senate

s/	Harold J. Brubaker
Speaker of the House of Representatives

s/	James B. Hunt, Jr.
Governor

Approved 10:21 a.m. this 17th day of September, 1997