March 20, 2024 Agenda: Nurse Practitioner Scope of practice

An opinion posted in The Detroit News by Naila Russell, DNP, FNP-BC, the legislative committee chair for the Michigan Council of Nurse Practitioners:

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2024/03/18/russell-nurses-are-leaving-michigan-because-of-two-outdated-law/73016807007/

Russell: Nurse practitioners are leaving Michigan because of two outdated laws
By Naila Russell - March 18, 2024

Michigan is falling behind when it comes to health care access. Currently, our state has fewer primary care providers than the national average. Additionally, the Robert Graham Center projects that within just a few years, the growing patient care need in our communities is on track to outpace Michigan’s existing supply of health care clinicians.

If Michigan is going to be able to meet current needs and be ready for the future, our state must strategically capitalize on our workforce of nearly 10,000 highly skilled nurse practitioners in the state of Michigan.Unfortunately, because of outdated state laws, nursing workforce surveys and reports from Michigan higher education institutions indicate that nurses may be increasingly choosing to practice in other states.

If Michigan is going to be able to meet current needs and be ready for the future, our state must strategically capitalize on our workforce of nearly 10,000 highly skilled nurse practitioners in the state of Michigan, Russell writes.
Twenty-seven states, D.C. and two territories have a competitive edge over Michigan because these states make it easier for NPs to practice their profession and for patients to choose and access care from a nurse practitioner.Michigan nurse practitioners (NPs) already have the authority to diagnose, prescribe, treat, order and interpret diagnostic tests in the state of Michigan. However, state law still requires most NPs to maintain a government-mandated contract with a physician.

These agreements are burdensome, costly, and make it harder for Michigan to make full use of our health care workforce, with no evidence of any benefit at all to patients. This legislative session, Michigan can join the majority of the country and remove these barriers.

As introduced, Senate Bill 279 puts patients over paperwork by retiring an unnecessary barrier standing between patients and improved access and more choices in health care.There is compelling evidence to support this policy for Michigan. In a recent survey nearly 3 in 4 Michiganians supported removing legislative barriers to accessing NP care. The majority of states that have already adopted similar measures are associated with better overall patient health outcomes, and improved access to care for patients, particularly in rural and underserved communities. Those experiences fit with decades of research findings that the NP profession as a whole is more likely to practice in primary care and accept Medicare and Medicaid patients compared to other clinicians. Patients also report high levels of satisfaction in their NP providers.Michiganders deserve choice and access. Senate Bill 279 offers a no cost, no delay solution that could immediately make a difference in Michigan.