CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE
Spring 2016 Issue |
 PRINT PAGE |
Nurse Practitioner Legislation
 |
James Pickral |
2016 General Assembly Session
In 2012, the physician community and the nurse practitioners agreed upon a new model for care that was team-based and led by a physician. This is a collaborative model that the physician community believes provides the best patient care while allowing everyone to practice to the fullest extent of their education and training. Despite this compromise, the nurse practitioners came back to the General Assembly this legislative session and pushed for independent practice. The Medical Society of Virginia, along with the entire physician community, successfully opposed this effort. The following bills were introduced this session regarding independent practice:
- HB 581 (Robinson): Nurse practitioners; practicing outside of a patient care team.
- HB 909 (Minchew): Nurse practitioners; practicing outside of a patient care team.
- SB 264 (Dance): Nurse practitioners; practicing outside of a patient care team.
- SB 369 (Stanley): Telemedicine pilot program; to expand access, etc., to health care services in certain areas.
- SB 620 (Stanley): Nurse practitioners; eliminates requirement that they practice as part of patient care team.
The original versions of the legislation carried by Delegate Robinson and Senator Dance would have granted nurse practitioners independent practice in underserved areas if they had 2000 hours of experience, aka, one year post graduate experience. We worked with the patrons to amend the bills to instead address what happens in the event a NP’s collaborating physician dies, loses his or her license, retires, or becomes disabled or relocates his or her practice. NPs will now have a 60-day grace period where they can continue to provide care if any of these situations arise, as long as they notify the Boards of Medicine and Nursing at the Department of Health Professions.
HB 909 and SB 620 were both unsuccessful and did not make it out of committee. SB 369, carried by Senator Stanley, was most concerning to us and would have allowed independent practice for NPs in underserved areas of Virginia. Fortunately, we were able to work out a compromise with Senator Stanley, who was most concerned about access to care in Southside Virginia, and it was amended to include a pilot program that would encourage the use of telemedicine in the collaboration between NPs and physicians- a practice that is already allowed within the current framework. Funding for this pilot program was included in the budget conference report.
We are pleased that we were able to once again put a halt to the campaign for independent practice. However, this topic will likely return and we must continue to work with legislators to find better solutions for addressing access to care in underserved regions of Virginia.
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PSV 2016 Fall Meeting
October 7-8, 2016
The Hotel Roanoke
& Conference Center
Roanoke, Virginia
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