Dear NPAA member and supporter,
Thank you to all who attended the Joint Committee (JC) meeting on Tuesday evening and/or the BME BOD meeting on Wednesday. As you saw, the version of the rules that I had previously sent you was reviewed line by line and I think we can all agree that Peggy Benson did an excellent job of negotiating the finer points in order to maintain the ground that we have as NPs and to allow us to move a bit further ahead as the 1:9 rule change was included in the updated version, as well as, the oversight of the NP owned clinic rules removed.
The next step will be for the BON and the BME to work on the telehealth ratio. Once that point is adjusted, the Rules will return to the JC for approval. This meeting is scheduled for the middle of February and will be a conference call. NPAA will post the date of that meeting as it should also be a public meeting forum.
I think that this experience has 100% affirmed that we must ALL be involved in legislation, networking, and being involved in order for us not to lose the small amount of ground we have presently. The NPAA leadership is consistently monitoring the political landscape and we will continue to inform our members of issues as they arise.
Again, I thank each and every one of you who logged in/attended the JC and BME meetings; had your collaborating MD/DO contact the BME to ask WHY these Rule Changes were needed, and for your continued support of our profession. We must remain diligent in our efforts to improve health care access and outcomes for our patients.
Sincerely,
D'Ann Somerall, DNP, FNP-BC
