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Work continues on implementation of legislation from the 2026 session. There was a handful of bills that directly impact Iowa physicians:
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New Emeritus License: An option for physicians age 60 or older who primarily teach.
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Medical Conscience: This bill affects all health practitioners, protecting First Amendment rights of healthcare practitioners who refuse to perform treatments, without doing harm to a patient.
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Abortion: Additional requirements in place for obtaining informed consent and regulations around dispensation of abortion drugs.
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Licensing: Changes physicians’ licensing cycles from two years to three years and adds a CE requirement for nutrition and metabolic health for certain providers.
The Process
Bills that are passed by the Iowa Legislature and signed by the governor become part of Iowa Code. Sometimes, additional rules or regulations are required to clearly execute those laws; those rules are written by executive branch agencies, approved by the governor and Legislative Branch, and implemented as Iowa Administrative Code, also known as Administrative Rules. Promulgating rules is a months-long process that includes drafting, public input, regulatory analysis, and multiple reviews by the affected board and/or agency. Visit the legislative website to learn more about the process or to track rulemaking.
Sign up to receive alerts specific to a board or agency.
- The Iowa Board of Medicine is listed as “Medicine Board.”
- The Board of Medicine is within the Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing, which is listed under “Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing Department.”
The AI Wave
By Dr. Vickie Pyevich, Vice Chair, Iowa Board of Medicine
Last year, House Study Bill 766 was introduced that would have allowed for Artificial Intelligence to practice medicine in Iowa. The bill required the creation of a new board to oversee AI licensing and public protection. The bill did not advance. And while the bill may have seemed futuristic at the time, we now know that multiple state boards are addressing AI in the practice of medicine. One of the better known programs is Utah’s prescription program that allows for the renewal of non-narcotic prescriptions solely through AI. We have also seen bills introduced in Indiana, Illinois, Texas, and Idaho on AI. It is fully anticipated that some version of HSB 766 will be reintroduced in Iowa's next legislative session.
To be clear, AI is already impacting the health care industry. The integration of AI into clinical workflows has become common, with over 80% of physicians now utilizing clinical AI in some capacity. The primary drivers behind this rapid adoption are clear: reducing administrative paperwork, saving valuable time, and the potential for better clinical decision-making with fewer diagnostic mistakes. When deployed thoughtfully, clinical AI offers substantial advantages that improve the daily practice of medicine. By alleviating the burden of documentation, AI tools free physicians to focus fully on the patient, observing important body language, facial expressions, and truly listening rather than typing on a computer screen. There are also concerns with clinical AI as it can introduce critical vulnerabilities that healthcare professionals must actively manage. Overworked or fatigued doctors run the risk of blindly trusting AI outputs, even when medical common sense suggests the system is wrong. The logic behind complex AI algorithms often operates as a "black box," making it difficult or impossible to track how a system reached a specific conclusion. When AI "hallucinations" or definitive glitches occur, this lack of transparency directly jeopardizes patient safety.
With the role of AI not yet fully determined in health care, the innovation presents profound questions for healthcare providers, stakeholders, and regulators. One of the most profound challenges will be deciding what AI can or should be assigned to do. Is it an autonomous provider of care or is it solely a tool for practitioners to use? Or perhaps it is some hybrid of the two. More discussion is needed on these questions with input coming from all corners of the healthcare landscape. The Board of Medicine invites all stakeholders in the healthcare field to participate in that discussion. This intentionality will lead to more voices being heard and will allow the best policies and laws to emerge.
In the meantime, for physicians practicing under the oversight of the Board of Medicine, the ultimate baseline remains unchanged: liability stops with the clinician and responsibility cannot be outsourced to an algorithm. Physicians remain 100% responsible for the accuracy of all final clinical decisions, prescriptions, and documentation. Please continue to follow this newsletter for additional information related to AI and the practice of medicine in Iowa.
By Ben Reinking, M.D.
University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine
Iowa, like the rest of the country, faces a physician shortage. We rank 44th in the nation for physicians per capita, and 14 of our 99 counties have two or fewer physicians serving the entire county. ¹
Efforts are underway to address this shortage. Most are aimed at the front end of the pipeline. These include increasing the percentage of Iowa students attending in-state medical schools, adding residency positions, and working to recruit and retain Iowa graduates and those with Iowa ties. That work matters. Those physicians will build careers and raise families here. In addition to providing medical care, retaining young professionals strengthens communities and supports the long-term vitality of our state.
Read the full blog.
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Following the recent approval of Iowa’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) expansion, Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (Iowa HHS) announced a new initiative to increase physician training opportunities in rural Iowa. The competitive funding opportunity will support the creation of new medical residency programs across the state.
Read the full press release.
Submitted by Solve M.E. and #MEAction
ME/CFS is a chronic, multi-system disease that the CDC estimates affects roughly 3.3 million U.S. adults, yet most clinicians receive little or no formal training in it. Onset typically follows an infection, and it can affect patients of any age with higher prevalence in women. That training gap has grown more urgent since COVID-19: a 2023 Mayo Clinic Proceedings review notes that about half of people with Long COVID meet ME/CFS criteria. The illness is serious, with patients reporting worse average quality of life than people with MS, chronic kidney failure, or congestive heart failure. Approximately 25% are severely impacted, meaning housebound or bedbound.
The most clinically important feature is post-exertional malaise (PEM): a worsening of symptoms after physical or cognitive exertion previously tolerated. PEM is often delayed, out of proportion to the trigger, and can take days, weeks, or longer to resolve. Under the National Academy of Medicine's 2015 criteria, diagnosis requires PEM plus at least six months of profound fatigue not due to excessive activity and not relieved by rest; unrefreshing sleep; and cognitive impairment and/or orthostatic intolerance. There is no single confirmatory lab test, so recognition depends on the clinician.
This is where the patient safety concern lies. When PEM is not recognized, it is frequently misattributed to deconditioning, and patients are advised to "push through" or begin graded exercise therapy, which surveys have linked to lasting deterioration, with roughly half reporting they got worse. This approach is not recommended for ME/CFS. The evidence-based strategy is symptom-contingent pacing: activity balanced against symptoms to avoid triggering PEM. Diagnostic delays and contraindicated advice cause preventable harm and for patients, can mean lost jobs, loss of independence, and years of avoidable decline.
The most durable fix is education. Because medical schools set their own curricula, the single lever that reaches all of them is the national licensing examinations: when ME/CFS and PEM questions appear on exams such as the USMLE and COMLEX, schools will teach about these topics. We respectfully ask the Iowa Board of Medicine to champion the inclusion of ME/CFS and PEM in national licensure exams and to share high-quality clinical resources through its channels, so that recognizing this disease becomes standard knowledge rather than optional.
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Have an idea for an article, or comments? Reach out to Charles Hill, executive director of the Board of Medicine.
As of Aug. 31, 2026:
- Total active licenses issued by the Board of Medicine: 19,956
Of those,
- Permanent MD/DOs: 18,276
- Resident MD/DOs: 1,034
- Genetic Counselors: 382
- Acupuncturists: 84
- The rest are special, temporary, administrative or provisional licenses.
Have an idea for a guest blog post for this newsletter? Let us know!
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