Health Policy Update 6/2017

Now that the 2017 legislative session has ended, we find ourselves reflecting on a couple of bills that bear significance for nurse practitioners while pivoting to a grass-roots campaign that will culminate with a bill being submitted in 2018 for full practice authority.

House Bill 427, proposed by Dustin Miller has been sent to Governor Edward’s office for signing into law. The bill can be found here. Essentially, it includes primary care nurse practitioners whose primary offices are within a shortage area to be eligible for income tax credits that were previously restricted for medical doctors.

Senate Bill 216, proposed by Senators Tarver and Lafleur (and amended by Dustin Miller) has been sent to Govenor Edwards office for signing into law. The bill can be found here. It allows for nurse practitioners to execute a physician emergency certificate, provided they “…act in accordance with a collaborative practice agreement and receives verbal approval for executing the certificate from his collaborating physician.” More to come on this bill in the coming weeks. 

Moving forward, we have a lot of work ahead of us in building towards the 2018 legislative session.  The LANP Health Policy Committee has developed a task force that will begin a grass-roots campaign that will begin reaching out to legislators this summer, with the aim of submitting a bill in 2018 session for full practice authority. A list of task force members (and their respective areas) can be found in the attached document. They will be tasked with coordinating the message that is to be delivered to legislators in (and around) your area. It’s important that the message that the legislators receive from each of us is succinct and similar, so please (if you plan on being part of this movement…and it’s encouraged that you do) stay in touch with task force members, as the message will change throughout the year.

 Coupled with the grass-roots campaign will be support from various stakeholders, aimed at assisting in messaging, throughout the year. Stakeholder announcements will be made as they become available. Our Facebook and Twitter pages will become slightly more active…by that I mean personable. If you’ve got a story that illustrates how #NPsLead, please email Mark deClouet @ mdeclouet@gmail.com or Samantha Lilly @ samlilley2487@hotmail.com. Expect that we'll be reaching out to some of you for small stories and bylines. 

 Lastly, we want to send out a special thanks to Representative Dustin Miller, whose leadership on the aforementioned bills is representative of how #NPsLead. Have a great summer everyone and stay tuned for upcoming messaging by the Health Policy Committee.

 

Mark deClouet and Sam Lilley 

LANP Health Policy Task Force Co-Chairs