U.S. Department
of Justice
HCW-00027 University Of South Alabama School Of Nursing (Landreth, Barbara)
Submission Number: 00027
Received:3/21/2015 6:31:26 PM
Commenter: BarbaraLandreth
Organization:University of South Alabama School of Nursing
State:Oklahoma
Agency: Federal Trade Commission
Initiative:FTC, DOJ to Host Second Public Workshop on Examining U.S. Health Care Competition; Project No. P13-1207
Attachments:
00027-93559.pdf Size = 1212 KB
Download Adobe Reader
Submission Text
I am in my final year of a family nurse practitioner program. I live in Oklahoma, which has very restrictive nurse practice laws. Oklahoma is a rural state, and we are consistently in the bottom 5 of all states when it comes to population health. Currently nurse practitioners are prohibited from prescribing schedule II drugs. As a result, nurse practitioners are prohibited from providing adequate pain relief to patients. Patients with acute injuries or chronic pain must, by default, seek care from a physician. In addition, nurse practitioners are required to contract with a prescribing physician in order to be able to prescribe other medications. Some nurse practitioners pay up to $30,000 per year to these physicians. In reality, the physicians have no active role in the nurse practitioner's practice, never see the nurse practitioner's patients, and do not have any interaction with or actual supervision of the nurse practitioner. Oklahoma nurse practitioners were successful this year in introducing a bill in our state house which would have allowed nurse practitioners to prescribe schedule II drugs. The bill was tabled by a committee lead by a local ER physician after the local medical association lobbied heavily against the bill. The attached article in Forbes magazine voices an accurate perspective on how the multiple health problems that the US now faces might be solved. I would encourage you to support nurse practitioners in our efforts to be allowed to provide much needed care without unnecessary physician restrictions to Oklahomans and all Americans.
Received:3/21/2015 6:31:26 PM
Commenter: BarbaraLandreth
Organization:University of South Alabama School of Nursing
State:Oklahoma
Agency: Federal Trade Commission
Initiative:FTC, DOJ to Host Second Public Workshop on Examining U.S. Health Care Competition; Project No. P13-1207
Attachments:
00027-93559.pdf Size = 1212 KB
Download Adobe Reader
Submission Text
I am in my final year of a family nurse practitioner program. I live in Oklahoma, which has very restrictive nurse practice laws. Oklahoma is a rural state, and we are consistently in the bottom 5 of all states when it comes to population health. Currently nurse practitioners are prohibited from prescribing schedule II drugs. As a result, nurse practitioners are prohibited from providing adequate pain relief to patients. Patients with acute injuries or chronic pain must, by default, seek care from a physician. In addition, nurse practitioners are required to contract with a prescribing physician in order to be able to prescribe other medications. Some nurse practitioners pay up to $30,000 per year to these physicians. In reality, the physicians have no active role in the nurse practitioner's practice, never see the nurse practitioner's patients, and do not have any interaction with or actual supervision of the nurse practitioner. Oklahoma nurse practitioners were successful this year in introducing a bill in our state house which would have allowed nurse practitioners to prescribe schedule II drugs. The bill was tabled by a committee lead by a local ER physician after the local medical association lobbied heavily against the bill. The attached article in Forbes magazine voices an accurate perspective on how the multiple health problems that the US now faces might be solved. I would encourage you to support nurse practitioners in our efforts to be allowed to provide much needed care without unnecessary physician restrictions to Oklahomans and all Americans.
Updated April 7, 2016