Title 5, Title 5 and Professions

(a) The board, with the approval of the director, may adopt regulations requiring any person, including, but not limited to, corporations, healthcare facilities, health-maintenance organizations, organizations, federal, state, or local governmental agencies, or peer-review boards…

(a) Effective beginning in the calendar year 2006, on or before the first day of May in each even-numbered year, the board shall mail an application for biennial registration to every person to whom a license to practice dentistry, dental hygiene, or DAANCE-certified maxillofacia…

An applicant for limited registration under this chapter who furnishes the board with satisfactory proof that the applicant is eighteen (18) years of age or older and of good moral character, that the applicant has graduated from a dental school accredited by the American Dental …

(a) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, a dentist of noteworthy and recognized professional attainment, who is a clearly outstanding dentist and who has been offered by the dean of a medical school, dental school, or school of dental hygiene in this state a full…

Unless another penalty is provided by the laws of this state, any person who violates any provision of this chapter or any rule or regulation adopted under this chapter, shall upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by imprisonment…

When it appears to the director and/or board that any person is violating any of the provisions of this chapter, the director and/or board may cause to be instituted an action to enjoin that violation in a court of competent jurisdiction and the court may restrain, and/or enjoin …

If any provision of this chapter or any rule or regulation made under this chapter, or the application of this chapter to any person or circumstances is held invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remainder of this chapter, rule, or regulation, and the application of t…

(a) Notwithstanding other provisions of this chapter, healthcare providers may make confidential healthcare information available to dental peer-review committees without authorization. (b) Confidential healthcare information before a dental peer-review committee remains strictly…

(a) The board of trustees of a hospital or other appropriate authority licensed pursuant to the laws of the state is authorized to suspend, deny, revoke, or curtail the staff privileges of any staff member for good cause which includes the grounds specified in § 5-31.1-10 for unp…

(a) Neither the proceedings nor the records of peer-review boards as defined in § 5-31.1-1 are subject to discovery or admissible in evidence in any case save litigation arising out of the imposition of sanctions upon a dentist or dental hygienist. Any imposition or notice of a r…

(a) The chairperson shall appoint two (2) licensed dentist members of the board and one public member to serve as an examining committee for applicants applying for licensure as dentists. The examining committee for dentists shall recommend to the full board, which shall recommen…

No person shall perform any act that constitutes the practice of dentistry in this state unless that person is licensed under the provisions of this chapter as a dentist or a dental hygienist, or unless that person performs limited auxiliary dental services, procedures, and dutie…

(a) As used in this chapter, a “dental assistant” is any person not licensed under the provisions of this chapter who performs dental services, procedures, or duties in aid of a licensed and registered dentist. (b) No dental assistant shall perform any service, procedure, or duty…

(a) Any dentist who is not a participant in a dental insurance plan and who, when treating patients of that plan, elects to use the direction to pay procedure set forth in title 27 must post a notice, in a conspicuous place in his or her offices where it can be read by his or her…

Any licensed dentist, public institution, or school authority may employ any licensed dental hygienist, whose activities are confined to performing those services and procedures that the licensed dental hygienist has been educated to perform, and which services and procedures are…

No dentist licensed under the provisions of this chapter or members of the same profession licensed to practice in other states of the United States, who voluntarily and gratuitously and other than in the ordinary course of his or her employment or practice, renders emergency med…

Any person who practices or attempts to practice dentistry in this state, without being licensed by and registered with the board, or without registering and obtaining annually a certificate of registration, as provided in this chapter, or who violates any of the provisions of th…

Any person who employs, hires, procures, or induces any other person not authorized by the provisions of this chapter to perform any act that constitutes the practice of dentistry in this state or aids or abets one not authorized in that practice is guilty of a felony punishable …

The following practices, acts, and operations are exempt from the operation of this chapter: (1) Physicians in the regular discharge of their duties. (2) The operation by bona fide students of dentistry or dental hygiene in the clinical departments or the laboratory of a school o…

(a) All advertising by any facility rendering dental-care services to the public shall contain the name of the dentist or dentists who either directs or owns the facility. (b) Any person or corporation who or that operates a dental referral service that is engaged in the business…

(a) Any public health dental hygienist, which for purposes of this chapter means any practicing registered dental hygienist who may perform dental-hygiene procedures in a public-health setting subject to conditions adopted by the Rhode Island board of examiners in dentistry, may …

The board of examiners in dentistry has the following duties and powers: (1) To adopt, amend, and rescind any rules and regulations, with the approval of the director of the department of health, that it deems necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter; (2) To investig…

Professionals licensed under this chapter utilizing telemedicine in the practice of dentistry are subject to the same standard of care that would apply to the provision of the same dental care service or procedure in an in-person setting.

The director has the following duties and powers: (1) With the prior approval of the governor, the director shall appoint a dental administrator who administers and supervises the investigatory and other activities of the board. The dental administrator shall be selected from a l…

(a) Authority to practice dentistry or dental hygiene under this chapter is by a license, issued by the director of the department of health, to any reputable dentist, dental hygienist, or DAANCE-certified maxillofacial surgery assistant who intends to practice dentistry, dental …

Dentists licensed pursuant to § 5-31.1-6 may supervise and delegate to any dental hygienist licensed pursuant to § 5-31.1-6, working under the dentist’s general supervision and who is employed on a regular basis by such dentists, any procedures that he or she may deem advisable; …

(a) Effective beginning in the calendar year 2006, every dentist, dental hygienist, or DAANCE-certified maxillofacial surgery assistant licensed to practice within this state, on or before the first day of May in each even numbered year, shall apply to the Rhode Island board of e…

(a) The director, upon recommendation from the board, after notice and hearing in accordance with the procedures prescribed in this chapter, shall refuse to grant the original license provided for in this chapter to any dentist, dental hygienist, DAANCE-certified maxillofacial su…

(a) The director of the department of health, dental administrator, board members, their agents or their employees are immune from suit in any action, civil or criminal, based upon any disciplinary proceeding or other official act performed in good faith in the course of their du…

This chapter is known as “The Funeral Service Contracts Act.”

(a) Any person, partnership, corporation, association, or his or her or its agents or representatives violating any of the provisions of this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by imprisonment not exceeding six (6) months, or by a fine not ex…

For the purposes of this chapter, a funeral service contract means a contract that requires the payment of money in exchange for the final disposition of a dead human body, including funeral, burial, or other services, or the furnishing of personal property or funeral merchandise…

No person may arrange, promote, enter into, or sell any funeral service contract on behalf of a funeral service establishment unless that person is an embalmer or funeral director licensed in accordance with the provisions of chapter 33.2 of this title, or an officer of a corpora…

(a) A licensed funeral service establishment shall deposit any money that the establishment receives pursuant to a funeral service contract, within fifteen (15) days of its receipt of that money, in one or more escrow accounts established in accordance with the provisions of this…

Funds held in an escrow account in accordance with the provisions of a funeral service contract shall remain intact. Upon submission to the escrow agent of a statement that the services, personal property, and merchandise have been fully performed or delivered, subscribed and swo…

Any person who has entered into a funeral service contract with a funeral service establishment, upon written notice to the establishment and to the escrow agent may cancel any funeral service contract prior to the performance by the establishment. In the event of a cancellation,…

A funeral service contract is not a burial insurance policy.

A violation of any of the provisions of this chapter is deemed an unfair or deceptive trade practice.

An irrevocable funeral contract may be entered into in which the amount held in escrow may be disbursed only upon the death of the beneficiary and that all interest accumulates to the escrow account and is also inaccessible to the beneficiary. Such irrevocable funeral contract fu…

As used in this chapter: (1) “Board” means the state board of funeral directors/embalmers. (2) “Cremation” means a two-part (2) procedure where a dead human body or body parts are reduced by direct flames to residue that includes bone fragments and the pulverization of the bone f…

All licenses issued under the provisions of this chapter shall expire on the thirty-first day of December each year, unless previously suspended or revoked. The division shall keep a register in which is entered the names of all persons to whom licenses are issued under this chap…

Every license issued as a funeral director/embalmer shall specify the name of the person to whom it was issued, and shall be conspicuously displayed in his or her place of business or employment. Every license issued as a funeral establishment or branch office shall specify the n…

(a) No person, association, partnership, corporation, limited-liability company, or otherwise, shall conduct, maintain, manage, or operate a funeral establishment or branch office unless a license for each funeral establishment and branch office has been issued by the department …

(a) Any licensed funeral director/embalmer employed, authorized, and empowered by the division of professional regulation may enter any funeral establishment, funeral-establishment branch office, or crematory licensed under the provisions of this chapter, during the hours the fun…

No crematory owned or operated by or located on property licensed as a funeral establishment or at another location or by a cemetery shall conduct cremations without first having applied for and obtained a license from the department. Applications for the crematory license shall …

(a)(1) Cremation shall not take place until the necessary permits and consents are issued pursuant to § 23-3-18. (2) A crematory shall not take custody of unidentified human remains. (3) Human remains designated for cremation shall be cremated without unreasonable delay. (4) When…