APRN BARRIER REDUCTION BILL - COMMITTEE HEARING ON WEDNESDAY AT 8AM!

On Wednesday, February 2nd at 8AM, the House Professional Registration and Licensing committee will hold a hearing on HB 2434 (5246H.01I.pdf (mo.gov)), an APRN barrier reduction bill filed by Rep. Derek Grier.

HB 2434 is a comprehensive piece of legislation drafted to permanently revoke the unnecessary and burdensome rules that were suspended during the state of emergency declared by Gov. Parson in March of 2020. Those suspensions benefitted thousands of Missourians and provided access to high quality health care delivered by nurse practitioners. In addition to repealing the geographic proximity requirement, chart review requirement, and one-month collaboration period with a collaborating physician, the bill also repeals the "rural area of need" from the telehealth statute, ensuring access to telehealth services provided by NPs regardless of patient location. Like HB 2371 that was heard in committee last week, HB 2434 also permits NPs to prescribe home health.

Given the significance of this legislation and the impact that this can have on YOUR practice, we are strongly encouraging anyone who is able to attend the hearing to come and offer brief testimony on how the waivers helped and encourage the committee to support this bill in its entirety. The committee members need to hear from the people that this legislation affects, and your comments on this bill will carry a substantial weight with committee members. If you are unable to attend in person, please consider submitting written testimony to committee members and calling their offices to encourage them to support HB 2434.

Rest assured that the physician lobby will be doing everything they can to stop this bill from moving forward. They will be calling. They will be emailing. They will be testifying. We need to counter with a STRONG show of support from those who know firsthand how these waivers have helped.

If you plan to make the trip to Jefferson City to testify, please reach out to us and let us know. We will be happy to meet with you to provide some instructions and tips for your testimony. You can either call the office at 573-533-5062 or email us at nursepractitioners@missourinp.org

We sincerely hope that you will take time to offer your perspective and offer our gratitude in advance.

To submit written testimony, please complete the following steps:

1. Visit https://house.mo.gov/WitnessForm/Default.aspx

2. Select Professional Registration and Licensing under the dropdown box for Hearing.

3. Select the box next to HB 2434.

4. Select Individual under the Testify As.

5. Select In Support Of under Reason.

6. Enter your comments in the Statement box.

7. Select whether you are only submitting testimony or if you plan to attend in person.

8. Enter your name and contact information.

9. Select the Acknowledgment box and type your name in the signature box.

10. Enter the code in the box and click Verify.

11. Click Submit to finish sending your testimony.

If you would like to contact members of the committee directly, please use the following information: