The bill, which has passed the state’s Senate, could save nurse practitioners money because in some cases, they pay for a collaborating physician. The bill would also expand access to care.
“I’ve heard numbers like $500 to $2,500 a month,” Sen. Brenda Stanley told the news outlet. “One nurse told me she paid her physician $30,000 one year. And sometimes they never even have a conversation with these physicians. I’m sure there are physicians that really do it right, that go in and check charts and check their prescriptions, but by and large, we’re finding that’s not the case. This is to relieve them of that financial burden.”
In order to apply to prescribe medications without supervision, nurse practitioners will have to have 6,240 hours of supervised practice first. They will only be allowed to prescribe schedule III, IV and V drugs.
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