Legislative News

Legislative Update
by Anna Small, A.R.N.P., C.N.M., J.D.
FNA Lobbyist
March 1, 2007

As the 2007 Legislative Session is about to begin, I would like to take this opportunity to bring everyone up to speed on legislative happenings. There are a number of bills which FNA supports.

Senate Bill 248/ House Bill 879: Sponsored by Senator Saunders and Representative Kair: This bill provides title protection for Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists, Certified Nurse Midwives, and Clinical Nurse Specialists. It also provides for licensure of Clinical Nurse Specialists. CNSs which are recognized by state licensure will be able to obtain Medicare reimbursement. This bill has already been heard in the Senate Health Regulation Committee, and passed through the committee unanimously. It will go to Health Human Services Appropriations next in the Senate and has been referred to House Health Council and House Policy and Budget Council. If your legislators are on any of these committees or councils, please urge them to support the bill.

Senate Bill 556/ House Bill (no number yet): Sponsored by Senator Saunders and Representative Luis Garcia. This bill would allow ARNPs to prescribe controlled substances, schedules III through IV, and if the ARNP works in a hospital or hospice, they could prescribe schedule II. The ARNP’s prescriptive privileges would have to be in compliance with their protocol filed with the Board of Nursing and signed by their collaborating physician. Florida is one of only three states which do not allow ARNPs to prescribe controlled substances. ARNPs are trained and educated to prescribe and allowing them to have prescriptive privileges will increase patient access to care. The bill is expected to face serious opposition from the Florida Medical Association as others, as it has in past years. We must continue to strive towards obtaining this critical privilege which is well within our scope of practice.

Senate Bill 1508/ House Bill 469: Sponsored by Senator Peaden and Representative Hays. This bill will include ARNPs and PAs in the statute which provides certain civil immunity to health care providers who obtain informed consent. The bill has been heard in House Health Quality Committee and passed unanimously. The bill is necessary because some ARNPs and PAs have had difficulty in their hospitals and practice settings obtaining inform consent since they were not included in the statute. The Board of Medicine has endorsed the bill. Please urge your legislators to support this non-controversial bill.

Senate Bill 1958/ House Bill (no number yet): Sponsored by Senator Wise and Representative Ron Saunders. This bill will allow ARNPs to certify the cause of death and sign death certificates. The statute as it now stands already clearly delineates which death cases must go to the medical examiner. ARNPs would only be involved in certifying the cause of death in uncomplicated, expected deaths as in hospice or long term care situations. This bill is adamantly opposed by the Florida Medical Association, so please contact your legislator and let them know how this bill will allow families to bring closure in cases of a loss of a loved one by facilitating the release of the body for funeral services.

Senate Bill 2208/ House Bill 1193: Sponsored by Senator Villalobos and Representative Yolly Roberson. Hospitals will be required implement a plan for the safe movement of patients and to protect employees from injury through, in part, the use of mechanical lifts. The bill is being supported by all of Florida’s nursing associations. The bill will probably face opposition from Florida’s hospitals.

Senate Bill 418: Sponsored by Senator Wilson. This bill expresses the goal of having a nurse in every school and would encourage private entities to provide matching funds to finance the program. This bill expresses a laudable goal which FNA strongly supports, however, without adequate funding, the program will be unsuccessful. Also, at this point, there is no House companion bill.

Senate Bill 2096/ House Bill 0739: Sponsored by Senator Peaden and Representative Holder. This bill will provide sovereign immunity for health care providers (MDs, DOs, and those licensed under the Nurse Practice Act) who are providers for impaired practitioner programs. This bill is one we have been working on with the Florida Medical Association as both associations support the bill.

In other legislative news, the various nursing associations have all been making a concerted effort to work together this year. If we are able to speak as one voice, it will be a powerful one. Although we do not always have the same goals or opinions, it is important for us to support one another whenever we can. We are working in conjunction, on at least some issues, with the Florida Nurse Practitioner Network, the Florida Association of Nurse Anesthetists, SEIU, the Florida Council of Nurse Midwives, and the Coalition for Advanced Practice Nursing. Most of these organizations are having organized lobby days during session and you are encouraged to attend one if possible. They are as follows:

Coalition for Advanced Practice Nursing: March 14 and 15, 2007
SEIU Nurse Lobby Days: March 13 and 14, 2007
Florida Association of Nurse Anesthetists: March 20, 2007
FNA District 8 Lobby Day: March 20, 2007
Florida Council of Nurse Midwives: March 27, 2007