A missed chance for health care bill
This year, the Legislature had the opportunity to increase consumer choice, cut needless red tape and make quality health care more affordable and accessible for Oklahoma families. Without spending any taxpayer dollars, lawmakers could have taken a step toward addressing our state’s dismal health rankings.
They chose not to, swayed by mistruths spread by physician groups.
Through the failure to hear legislation to give nurse practitioners full practice authority, the Legislature maintained the status quo and preserved regulations that enrich a handful of doctors while limiting health care access for residents.
For several years, the Association of Oklahoma Nurse Practitioners has advocated for full practice authority. Put simply, that means nurse practitioners (NPs) would be allowed to put their full education and training to use caring for Oklahomans.
Under current law, NPs must sign a collaborative agreement with a physician in order to prescribe medication, though little to no supervision takes place. Some NPs pay a physician thousands of dollars each month for a signed piece of paper that allows them to do their jobs. You see why physicians like this arrangement.
Given the financial benefits they receive, it’s not surprising physicians and osteopaths would work to preserve the status quo. What is surprising is that they would mislead legislators to limit the health care options of Oklahomans.
In the waning days of the session, full practice authority opponents spread mistruths about patient safety, opioid prescriptions and medical malpractice insurance — mistruths that were contradictory to language in the text of the legislation.
Some opponents even told legislators that NPs would start performing abortions. Abortions do not fall within an NP’s scope of practice, and it’s shameful to use falsehoods to play on people’s deeply held convictions.
Full practice authority is law in 22 states, almost all of which rank much higher than Oklahoma in national health rankings. Study after study shows that full practice authority increases health care access without endangering patients.
Full practice authority does not mean that NPs are unsupervised. NPs are regulated by the Oklahoma Board of Nursing, just as doctors are regulated by the State Medical Board. NPs are highly educated professionals with master’s and doctorate degrees. They understand their jobs and their scope of practice.
NPs already own clinics in Oklahoma. Every day, NPs provide quality care to Oklahoma families without the “supervision” of a doctor in their practice. NPs already collaborate with medical specialists through referrals and consultations, as do other health care providers. Full practice authority bills would not have changed that, and wouldn’t have expanded NPs’ scope of practice.
What these bills would have done was remove an unfair and needless financial burden from NPs. Instead of thousands of dollars going to doctors for a signature, that money could be used by NP-owned clinics to hire additional staff, open new locations and offer health care to more Oklahomans. Now, those driving an hour to the closest health care provider or waiting weeks for an appointment will just have to tough it out.
AONP looks forward to working with legislators next session on a true and honest solution for Oklahoma’s health care crisis.