Modernizing Nurse Practitioner Regulations

It's been a busy last few months as the legislative agenda has heated up of the NP organization where I am the Chair-Elect. I have been to some fundraisers and legislative visits to try and garner support from lawmakers to sponsor and support the bill that will eliminate statutory collaboration between a physician and nurse practitioner in New York State. The bill is known as the NP Modernization Act.

We have been at this for about the last 5 years and up until now, there has not been much forward movement. While we had a sponsor for the bill and many co-sponsors, it was stuck in both the Senate and Assembly's Higher Education Committee (where all of the professions in NY state are regulated). The bill basically sat idle in these respective committees. We finally experienced a breakthrough after countless visits and grassroots efforts. The IOM Future of Nursing report absolutely helped make the case for increasing access to care as did the positive press that nurse practitioner partnered continues to receive. Some of the lawmakers were willing to act upon the bill albeit with some amended language.

Since then, the bill has been reported out of the Assembly's Higher Education Committee and should soon be on the floor for full Assembly vote. The same must also happen in the Senate and if it passes the Committee, will go to the Senate floor for a vote. We are staying positive that we will see movement in the Senate but this is one of the significant challenges right now. Oh, and the legislative session ends in 3 days. The bill must then be signed by the governor for to take effect. If it doesn't pass in this legislative session, the process starts all over next year since bills have a 2 year life cycle and this is the second year of the current bill. All is not lost however, since any legislative victories carry some momentum the next go-around.

Of course, there is opposition to the bill. Organized medicine largely does not support the bill and I'm sure that even some nurse practitioners aren't thrilled with it. But in the end, the NP Modernization Act in New York will allow enhanced access to care (while the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act hangs in the balance of the Supreme Court). And at the end of the day, this is what it is all about - giving patients the opportunity and allowing them to choose care that is delivered in partnership with a nurse practitioner.

On another note, I will be in Orlando Florida this week attending the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Annual Conference. You can follow updates from the conference on Twitter at #AANP12 plus I will be tweeting from @StephenNP.

Private Practice

There is an interesting trend that I'm observing and don't necessarily see how this is going to turn out. I'm seeing more and more nurse practitioner's opening their own autonomous practices. Many of these offices set out to offer care that is personalized, covered under insurance, and of course high-quality. I'm also seeing more NP specialty/sub-specialty practices such as house calls, incontinence, and women's health. This is in a time when more physician practices are joining together in these conglomerations that aren't necessarily tied to hospitals. You'd be hard pressed to find a solo primary care physician these days yet nurse practitioner solo practices are popping up. The talk about the formation of accountable care organizations can be attributed to health care reform and the spurring of large multi-physician practices. What to make of this? I honestly don't know. Many people and patients have said to me "you should start your own prac

NP Residency

The healthcare system of today is so complex yet so dysfunctional that I believe the time has come to educate and train the NP providers of tomorrow in a way that is reflective of that complexity. We have done a good job up to this point but need to bring that to the next level. Residency. I'm not necessarily referring to the typical residency training of physicians which takes place in hospitals but a residency-type of program in an out-patient setting (ironic that we use the term residency). We realize that healthcare is not exclusively delivered in hospitals. It takes place in independent providers offices, in community health centers, in mobile health vans, and in retail settings. It takes place in people's homes and places of employment. It takes place in many of the health decisions that we make on a daily basis. I found this NP residency program in Connecticut that claims to be the first NP residency in the US. The programs admits 4 NPs each year and trains them to ha

Repost: Let Us Be Heard

I started this blog, A Nurse Practitioner’s View, 3 years ago because there were very few health stories that even mentioned nurse practitioners as part of the health care landscape. Right before I started the blog, I would respond to other health policy articles published on the Web by writing comments to the websites – only to be subjected to baseless and factually incorrect statements. It was soon thereafter that I decided I would write my own perspective on health policy, trends, and news. I also felt it important from a credibility aspect to not blog anonymously but to put my name on it. I recall those few early blog posts that I proudly wrote and would feverishly check my blog visitor stats to see if people were reading. Well, it was a bit slow going in the beginning with about 10 – 15 readers but as they say, “if you build it, they will come.” Today, the blog enjoys hundreds of visits a day, has a Facebook following, has enabled me to be “discovered” to blog at Online Nurse

hiremehealth said…

Nurse Practitioners often view the health and wellness of individuals within the family or community system..

July 5, 2012 at 5:43 AM

personal fitness from absolute health fitness said…

Nice post! Thanks for sharing! ;)

August 11, 2012 at 9:37 PM

Nurse Jobs said…

Thanks for sharing this post! Following you now on Twitter for your latest updates!

October 30, 2012 at 12:29 AM