Senator Frank Hoagland (R-Mingo Junction, OH) has announced his plans to introduce legislation to allow independent practice for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs).
The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians joined the Ohio State Medical Association and other physician organizations in sending a memo to potential bill co-sponsors on May 15 urging that they hold off agreeing to co-sponsor this bill as the legislation would greatly expand APRN scope of practice and the issue was just dealt with in the last General Assembly.
“While we all sincerely value the professional abilities of APRNs, we believe that independent practice for APRNs, as is being proposed in this draft legislation, runs counter to the collaborative approach of team-based care and medical homes. By permitting APRNs to silo their nursing responsibilities away from this team-based approach to care, our health care system is only fragmented.
Given all of the work completed in the prior General Assembly on this topic, ending ultimately with the passage of legislation that maintained the current care model of APRNs and collaborative arrangement with a physician, we would again ask that you hold off on co-sponsoring this legislation. We see no reason why APRNs would need to veer from this proven approach, especially after having recently been granted enhancements to their role in the care team. We remain firm in our position that completely eliminating physician collaboration is inappropriate.
Thank you for your consideration of our thoughts on this important issue.”