IOWACourt order
Iowa Supreme Court says physicians can certify malpractice claims against physician assistants
The Iowa Supreme Court on October 16, 2026, held that physicians and physician assistants are licensed in substantially similar fields under Iowa Code section 147.139, so a physician may sign the certificate of merit affidavit in a malpractice suit against a physician assistant. The court reversed a Dallas County dismissal of Joshua Davenport's suit against physician assistant Nathanael Fuller and remanded.
Key points
- Justice Dana Oxley wrote the opinion; Chief Justice Susan Christensen took no part.Iowa Supreme Court
- The trial court ruled an emergency department general surgeon was not in a substantially similar field to a family medicine physician assistant.Iowa Supreme Court
- Applying the license-based categorical approach of Jones v. Lindell (2026), the court found physicians and physician assistants practice in substantially similar fields.Iowa Supreme Court
- Reading the term more tightly would make "substantially similar" superfluous alongside "the same" field, the court said.Iowa Supreme Court
- Section 147.139(4) separately requires experts against physician defendants to be licensed physicians, addressing any asymmetry, the court said.Iowa Supreme Court
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Iowa Supreme Court