Chester County Medicine Spring 2021 - 26

www.CHESTERCMS.org

Politics & Medicine

SCOPE OF PRACTICE
BY LARRY L. LIGHT

tate legislators find themselves with three
principal job responsibilities. The most visible
is being on the House or Senate floor during
legislative sessions and voting. Some votes are routine, but many are partisan and charged with political
controversy. Another responsibility is maintaining a
local district legislative office. Staffed with employees
experienced at cutting government red tape and assisting the legislator's constituents, the district office plays
an important role in the community. Coincidentally,
it also has the political advantage of enhancing their
visibility across their district and their political base.
Their third and least visible job is voting on bills
in legislative committees. Every piece of legislation
introduced is assigned to a committee, but only a small percentage
have enough political support to advance further in the process.
Any bill the committee chair places before the committee for consideration is just at the point of going mainstream in the legislative
process.
Legislators often seek committee assignments that will help their
districts. If improving the roads in their district is important, they
try to get assigned to the Transportation Committee. Some desired
committee appointments align with the legislator's professional interests. Lawyers all want to serve on the Judiciary Committee and
former teachers on the Education Committee.

26 CHESTER COUNT Y Medicine | SPRING 2021

The Professional Licensure Committees are different. They are a highly-sought committee assignment
because it is a committee where generally non-partisan
issues covering the wide expanse of state licensure laws
create a political vortex that is enticing. This committee in the House and Senate is the scope of practice
battleground.
Professional Licensure Committee members
discover that their fund raisers are well attended by
lobbyists for the thousands of licensed professionals,
health related and non-health related, spread across the
state. They also learn that they will be caught in the
middle of intense political drama when licensure bills
are debated. They quickly develop a keen insight into
the unique scope of practice quagmire.
Given the legislative process and the nature of scope of practice
conflicts, the chair of the Professional Licensure Committee is a key
player. Legislative leaders and other legislators depend on the committee chair to study the issues closely, give both sides a fair hearing
and above all seek a compromise that will avoid a contentious floor
vote on the bill. Choosing among friends is not a popular legislative activity so legislators don't relish high profile battles that find
them caught in the middle between strong advocacy forces. Scope
of practice legislation does just that, with physician groups in the
milieu with hospitals and insurers along with the advocates for

http://www.chestercms.org

Chester County Medicine Spring 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chester County Medicine Spring 2021