3 minute read
GUEST EDITORIAL
from CCC- April/May 2022
by ensembleiq
Momentum for America’s Silent Health-care Army
As of 2021, 781,000 Kansas residents lived in a primary care shortage area where only half of the need for primary care providers was adequately met.1 Now that Kansas has adopted full practice authority, NPs in the state can now help meet that growing demand by being able to practice independently, including prescribing medication without physician oversight.
When New York became the 25th state to enact full practice authority, Governor Hochul stated that “New York’s health-care workforce is filled with tremendously talented professionals. … We should leverage the growing skills of the workers already caring for New Yorkers to provide even more care when it is needed most.”2
The majority of states now enacting full practice authority legislation signals a momentum shift in the battle to retire outdated regulations and give tools to an army of talented professionals working in retailhealth settings and other practices across the country.
PAs have seen several legislative victories in modernizing their practice over the past year as well, and groundwork is also currently being established to modernize the pharmacist profession.
At the onset of the pandemic, we discussed America’s Silent Health-care Army. We wrote that:
“Once again, we are witnessing America’s silent health-care army mobilizing to fill the gaps that plague this country. Even before the pandemic was officially declared, this workforce of nearly 450,000 medical professionals was already taking aim and planning its response to an invisible and unpredictable enemy. This is not their first fight either: … this silent workforce mobilized in the face of the floods in Texas and the fires in California. From every natural disaster to the refugee crises here and abroad, from the front lines of the opioid crises to the everenduring gaps of patient knowledge, America’s [NPs and PAs] continue their work, quietly filling our nation’s health-care gaps and bringing us one step closer to a day in which every single American has access to affordable and high-quality care.”3
More than two years of a public health emergency has only further demonstrated the need to equip our front-line health-care heroes with the tools they deserve to meet the mounting challenges of the day.
Through recent legislative victories and after nearly three decades of effort, we now have the momentum necessary to ensure that this silent army will not be left unequipped and unarmed by outdated and archaic regulations. A majority of states have enacted full practice authority for NPs. Now, we need to ride this momentum to ensure all states enact this legislative framework. PAs and pharmacists also should be practicing at the very top of what their extensive training allows and ride this legislative momentum.
CCA provides a unique perspective in these state-level legislative battles. Retail health sits at the intersection of health-care access, direct consumer interaction, and even local economic development. The retail health perspective remains critical in advancing and replicating promising modernization legislation.
As upcoming opportunities arise in states like North Carolina, Texas, and Michigan, we will continue to need your first-hand accounts and narratives as we advocate to lawmakers on the importance of retiring these outdated restrictions and unleashing the full potential of America’s Silent Health-care Army.
The momentum is there. We now need to capitalize on it. C
