Lancaster Physician Winter 2020 - 37

WINTER 2020

Legislative Updates

Pennsylvania

Medical Society

QUARTERLY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

he House and Senate are both
beginning to ramp up activity for
the 2020 calendar year and the
second half of the 19/20 regular
session. Among the issues that will be debated
before the legislature this year, health care is sure
to be front and center as proposals addressing
CRNP independent practice, prior authorization,
opioids and Medical Assisted Treatment (MAT)
for opioid use disorder, health insurance credentialing, and out-of-network/surprise billing are
all on the potential short list.

CRNP INDEPENDENT
PRACTICE

CRNPs continue to push legislators to grant
them the same autonomous clinical authority
as physicians. Senate Bill 25, having passed
the Senate for the second straight session,
currently awaits consideration by the House
Professional Licensure Committee. House Bill
100, a companion bill to Senate Bill 25, is on the
same docket. PAMED has, over the past several

months, urged physicians to voice their concerns
to lawmakers...especially those who sit on this
key committee. While PAMED recognizes the
valuable contributions CRNPs provide to health
care teams, our policy remains firm-CRNPs
are not equipped to practice without the benefit
of a physician's immediate availability through a
collaborative agreement. CRNPs are aggressively
lobbying legislators, and physicians must do the
same if we are to preserve a collaborative system
that is the model in 28 other states across the
country.
PAMED engaged Susquehanna Polling and
Research, Inc. to poll 3,300 Pennsylvanians to
see how they felt about the health care professionals that care for them. Some of the counties
polled include Allegheny, Chester, Lackawanna,
Lancaster, and Potter. The results highlighted that
92 percent of those polled are satisfied with the
access they have to physicians and other medical
providers in their area. In another overwhelming
majority, a combined 73 percent of those surveyed support collaborative agreements between

LANCASTER

PHYSICIAN

physicians and CRNPs, instead of allowing
CRNPs to practice independently.

PRIOR AUTHORIZATION

PAMED, along with a number of other
stakeholders (including patient advocacy organizations) is seeking to reform the current prior
authorization process. Recently, two bills have
been introduced: House Bill 1194 by Representative Steven Mentzer of Lancaster County, and
Senate Bill 920 by Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill of
York County. These bills seek to improve patient
care and relieve physicians of the many frustrating
hurdles that health insurers require physicians
to navigate. It is quickly becoming clear to both
lawmakers and patients that prior authorization
needs reforming as more and more patients are
facing denials for services recommended by their
physician. Positive change will largely be driven
by patient and physician engagement on this
Continued on page 38

Lancaster Physician Winter 2020

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