California Advocates Push Expanded Role for NPs

The California Health Care Foundation examines new law in 2023 that creates a route for NPs to practice independently.

Public health stakeholders must rally behind nurse practitioners as a critical component of expanding healthcare access in the state, the California Health Care Foundation says.

The foundation has published an issues brief on AB 890, which goes into effect in 2023, and which creates a route for NPs to practice independently.

“AB 890 presents opportunities to increase access to healthcare for Californians, especially those served in the safety net and those who live in rural and underserved areas,” CHCF says in the brief. "Nurse practitioners can hasten the change by embracing new practice models, seizing opportunities within the changing healthcare funding and delivery systems, and sharpening their business acumen.

CHCF recommends that stakeholders:

• Promote understanding of what NPs provide and reach out to community leaders and the public about NPs role in improving care access.
   
• Remove remaining practice barriers, that include hospital policies limiting NP privileges and leadership roles, NP practices not being allowed to apply for rural health clinic designation, NPs not being able to be lab directors offering services in their own clinics, and telehealth regulations.
   
• Support nurse-managed health centers that are not affiliated with academic health centers but which could affiliate with federally qualified health centers for primary care.
   
• Provide education and supports for NPs, including “business knowledge and skills to find funding and run their own businesses or expand practices within institutions. NPs need the skills to manage complex institutional, financial, billing, compliance, human resources, and marketing issues.
  
  "NPs, clinic and healthcare system leaders, policymakers, safety-net providers, and communities must be proactive in shaping attitudes and policies that impact their practice, and addressing the resistance of some physician organizations seeking to restrict any advancement of NP practice," the brief says.
  
  "To accomplish this, NPs will need the active involvement of supportive physicians, other healthcare leaders, and policymakers to attest to the safety and quality of NP practice. They will also need the advocacy of their patients, sharing their experience of care with families and friends in the community."