---
type: "Bill"
title: "State Board of Physicians - Physician Licensure - Prohibition on Requiring Specialty Certification"
description: "State Board of Physicians - Physician Licensure - Prohibition on Requiring Specialty Certification"
jurisdiction: "us/states/md"
legislature: "Maryland General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 989"
citation: "Maryland SB 989 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health Occupations", "Assessments", "Committees and Commissions", "Licenses", "Physicians"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Nathan-Pulliam and Mathias"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 16
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2017-02-03"
last_action: "2017-05-04"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d54362f1-98c3-4a1b-942d-444fe95fefd5"
source_url: "http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmMain.aspx?id=SB989&stab=01&pid=billpage&tab=subject3&ys=2017rs"
source_hash: "3fc3b83d585b02184bc476e56c4ded4cf98a7feb40ed2c350fa75d54b156637d"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-md"]
---

# Maryland SB 989 (2017) — State Board of Physicians - Physician Licensure - Prohibition on Requiring Specialty Certification

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2017RS/bills/sb/sb0989f.pdf)

## Votes

- Third Reading — **140–0** (pass) · legislature
- Third Reading — **46–0** (pass) · legislature
- Third Reading — **47–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Nathan-Pulliam and Mathias — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-02-03** First Reading Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-08** Hearing 3/09 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2017-03-13** Favorable Report by Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-14** Favorable Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-14** Second Reading Passed
- **2017-03-16** Third Reading Passed (46-0) `passage`
- **2017-03-16** First Reading Health and Government Operations `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-22** Hearing 3/29 at 1:00 p.m.
- **2017-04-03** Favorable with Amendments Report by Health and Government Operations `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-04-03** Favorable with Amendments {596783/1 Report Adopted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-04-03** Second Reading Passed with Amendments
- **2017-04-04** Third Reading Passed with Amendments (140-0) `passage`
- **2017-04-10** Senate Concur - House Amendments
- **2017-04-10** Third Reading Passed (47-0) `passage`
- **2017-04-10** Passed Enrolled
- **2017-05-04** Approved by the Governor - Chapter 547 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d54362f1-98c3-4a1b-942d-444fe95fefd5`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Maryland legislature records).