In a wave of timely Op-eds highlighting health care access issues for the upcoming legislative session, two prominent pro-business organizations, Texas Association of Business and Texas Public Policy Foundation, made an urgent call for full practice authority for advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) in Texas.
In his piece, CEO of Texas Association of Business, Bill Hammond, talked about the need to cut the red tape and remove costly and burdensome delegation agreements for Texas APRNs as one way to alleviate the State’s growing health care provider shortages.
“When advanced practice nursing was relatively new, the legislature made doctors delegate their authority to APRNs,” Hammond explained. “Fifty years later, Texas has robust educational, licensure, and regulatory frameworks and this delegation is no longer necessary. Indeed, the US military, federal agencies, and many other states have ended this practice.”
In his Op-ed last week. Dr. Dean Waldman, the Director of Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Health Care Policy Center and a pediatric cardiologist by profession, echoed some of the same sentiments. Citing a Texas Nurse Practitioners survey, he pointed to the exorbitant costs of delegation agreements -- some as high as $120,000 a year -- calling these agreements a form of “extortion.”
Read the full TAB Op-ed: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/opinion/bill-hammond-texas-need-more-advanced-practice-nurses/ccO47Xi0D9XJGzdCWVroSM/
Read the full TPPF Op-ed: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Cohen-and-Waldman-What-extortion-looks-like-to-10796680.php