CNAP Legislative Update # 6

CNAP Legislative Update #6
Lynda Woolbert, Executive Director
Coalition for Nurses in Advanced Practice
March 13, 2011

In this issue:
Two Senate Bills Filed
Sign up for APRN Day on March 24th
APRNs Go the Extra Mile
TORCH Support
SB 23: Still a Chance for APRNs to be Included

APRN Senate Bills Filed

Hard work yielded dividends when two Senators filed APRN prescriptive authority bills last week. Senator Rodney Ellis (D – Houston, SD #13) filed S.B. 1260 on March 8thas the Senate companion for H.B. 1266 by Representatives Garnet Coleman (D – Houston, HD #149) and Rob Orr (R – Burleson, HD #58). The following day, Senator Royce West (D – Dallas, SD #23) filed S.B. 1339. While the senate bills are different, both would result in independent prescriptive authority for APRNs.

Since SB 1260 is a companion to HB 1266, they are identical and both, along with HB 708 by Rep. Kelly Hancock (R – Fort Worth, HD #93), are our ideal bills. We have more good news about these bills. On March 8th, Rep. Orr signed on with Rep. Coleman as a joint author of H.B. 1266. His action strengthens H.B. 1266 since it is now authored by both a Democrat and a Republican. If you are a constituent in Rep. Orr’s district, please call or write to thank him for signing on to author HB 1266.

SB 1339 is very similar to the LBB bill, HB 915 by Representatives Christian and Rodriguez, except SB 1339 is improved. Instead of requiring 3,600 hours of delegated prescriptive authority before the Board of Nursing (BON) may grant a new APRN full prescriptive authority, SB 1339 only requires 500 hours and those hours may be completed under the direction of a physician or an APRN with full prescriptive authority. SB 1339 also gives the BON some options to grant full prescriptive authority that are not contained in HB 915. These include directing the BON to grant full (independent) prescriptive authority to APRNs who: (1) move from another state with prescriptive authority and are otherwise qualified; and (2) completed 500 hours of delegated prescriptive authority prior to enactment of the bill.

The CNAP Website is updated to reflect the new bills that have been filed. To view a side-by-side comparison of all these bills, Click Here.  Please remember to thank Senator Ellis for authoring SB 1260 and Senator West for authoring SB 1339. The fact that these are the first independent prescriptive authority bills to ever be filled in the Texas Senate is a landmark for APRNs.

This is also a great opportunity to contact your state senator. Write a brief note relating the bill numbers and authors and urging your senator’s support.

APRN Day at the Capitol on March 24th

We need more APRNs at the Capitol.  In prior sessions, physicians have only been at the Capitol on the first Tuesday of each month. This session, they are there multiple times a week. It is critical that APRNs increase our profile at the Capitol.

The next APRN Day at the Capitol is one week from Thursday. If you have not yet been to the Capitol this session, please plan to attend. We begin the day at 9 a.m. in a reserved section of the Capitol Grill for a briefing. Then we visit our legislators from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.  To attend, you must register by this Thursday, March 17th. To register, CLICK HERE.

APRNs Go the Extra Mile to Pass Landmark Legislation

Many APRNs are making repeated visits to the Capitol and/or writing their legislators.  Some APRNs’ patients or delegating physicians are even weighing in on the issue and writing their legislators urging support for all of our bills. They understand that passing legislation that will allow APRNs to improve access to primary and other essential health care services requires getting as many constituents as possible actively involved.

There are some APRNs who exceed all expectations and set a new standard for all of us. I met one such APRN when she visited the Capitol on March 1st. Rachelle Campbell, FNP, owns clinics in Plano and McKinney that serve a large proportion of Medicare, Medicaid and other medically underserved populations.

Rachelle recognized that African Americans are less likely than others to know who Nurse Practitioners are and what they can do. She took advantage of an existing relationship with a state representative who is a member of the Black Caucus and asked to speak at the 2011 Texas Legislative Black Caucus Conference. Rachelle spoke to over 100 people on February 27th, including some legislators and legislative staff, who previously had no idea that advanced practice nurses could diagnose and prescribe.

Please take advantage of your own networking skills and special talents to help pass APRN Legislation. Success passing our APRN legislation takes all of us contributing as much as we can. The next 2 months are a critical window in which we must work as hard as possible to pass this legislation. Rachelle took action to tap a new resource.  Please keep that in mind and think about what resources you can tap to help pass HB 708, HB 1266, HB 915, SB 1260 or SB 1339, and let your legislators hear from you!

TORCH Supports APRNs

The newest group to endorse removing physician delegation from the requirements for APRNs to diagnose and prescribe is the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals (TORCH).  This is an important endorsement adding to the existing list of state and national organizations lending their support.

 It also represents another opportunity for you to contact your state representative and senator reminding them that many organizations support the change that APRNs are seeking.  To find the complete list of organizations supporting our legislative change, Click Here.

Still a Chance for SB 23

Some of you who live in the district of members of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Medicaid may be wondering what happened to S.B. 23. Over 2 weeks ago, I alerted you that the committee was about to vote on cost-saving initiatives to include in that bill.

The subcommittee has still not voted so there is still an opportunity to contact your senator if you live in any of these Senators’ districts:  Senators Nelson (Lewisville, SD #12), Eltife (Tyler, SD #1), Deuell (Greenville, SD #2), Hinojosa (McAllen, SD #20), Whitmire (Houston, SD #15) or Zaffirini (Laredo, SD #21). Please encourage them to support proposed policy change 156. Those who live in Senator Williams’ district (The Woodlands, SD #4) should thank him for proposing and supporting this policy change.

The subcommittee is scheduled to meet Monday through Thursday, but we do not know which day they will consider the APRN policy changes, so please call ASAP.