Drop date: Monday,
March 13, 2017
Audience: All
physician members in Texas with email who did not open Feb. 28 alert
Subject line: An Onslaught
of Bad Scope Bills. Stop Them
Headline: IF YOU WANT
TO PRACTICE MEDICINE, GO TO MEDICAL SCHOOL
Template: TMA
Dear Dr. [LAST]
Please act now to block two
bad bills that would allow people with far less education, skills, and training
to do what you do.
Remember the long hours you spent studying in medical school, the
permanent stench of formaldehyde on your clothes and body, the months of
reading weighty textbooks and traipsing behind your physician mentors during
your clinical clerkships?
Remember the interminable days and nights and weekends during your
residency when you learned how to actually take care of a patient, with
increasing degrees of autonomy?
As physicians, our education, skills, and training are more than just badges
of honor. They’ve earned for us the privilege of practicing medicine, of having
patients place their health in our hands with the reasonable expectation that
we will help them heal or mend safely.
Some members of the Texas Legislature, however, don’t quite see it that
way. They don’t appreciate the work we’ve put in to obtain that privilege. They
think it’s safe to allow lesser-trained practitioners to play doctor.
In fact, we’ve seen an onslaught of bad bills that would expand those
practitioners’ scope of practice. More than 40 such proposals have been filed
here in Austin this year. Some would grant advanced practice registered nurses
(APRNs) independent prescribing. Others would allow direct access to physical
therapists without a physician diagnosis and referral, allow psychologists to
prescribe, and give pharmacists diagnosis and prescribing authority. And there
are many more questionable expansions.
We need to stop
two very bad bills right now. Please contact your state lawmakers, Sen.
<FIRST> <LAST> and Rep. <FIRST> <LAST>, today. Let them
know what those years of learning mean for your patients. Tell them you oppose
these bills and ask them to help the Texas Medical Association stop them: House
Bill 1415 by Rep. Stephanie Klick (R-Fort Worth)/Senate Bill 681 by Sen. Kelly
Hancock (R-North Richland Hills) would grant APRNs full, independent practice and
prescribing authority.
You can call Senator <LAST> and Representative <LAST> at
their Capitol offices:
·
Senator <LAST>: <CAP PHONE>
·
Representative <LAST>: <CAP PHONE>
Please call or write today. The nurses have been busy drumming up support
for these bills by dramatically downplaying the differences in our education,
skills, and training — and what that means to our patients.
Remember this simple message: We strongly support team-based care, but if
you want to practice medicine, go to medical school.
Sincerely,
Don R. Read, MD
President
Texas Medical Association
TALKING
POINTS
·
I am a physician who lives in your district. I am
writing to express my strong opposition to two bills that would allow
nonphysicians to engage in the practice of medicine. Such a change would not
expand access to health care; it would increase the cost of health care, and it
would not be safe for the people of Texas.
·
Please do not support House Bill 1415 by Klick/Senate
Bill 681 by Hancock, which would grant advanced practice registered nurses
(APRNs) full, independent practice and prescribing authority.
·
I oppose independent practice for APRNs without
collaboration with a physician. To protect patient safety, diagnoses and
prescriptive authority must remain the purview of medicine.
·
Expanding APRNs’ scope of practice will not increase
access to care in rural Texas. In states that do and do not allow APRNs
independent practice, the vast majority of them practice exactly where most
physicians practice — in the metropolitan areas.
·
Expanding APRNs’ scope of practice will increase the
cost of care. Research comparing APRNs with physicians found a 41-percent
increase in hospitalizations and a 25-percent increase in specialty visits
among patients treated in the same setting by APRNs.
·
Please compare the number of patient-care hours
required in training. Physicians like me receive 12,000 to 16,000 hours of
training through medical school and residency. APRNs, however, have just 500 to
720 hours of patient-care hours in their training.
·
Physicians and nurses worked together in 2013 to
devise a landmark state law that improved collaboration and supervision. I
support improvements to the collaboration process and exploring ways to improve
access to care, especially in underserved areas.
·
Physicians strongly support team-based care, but if
you want to practice medicine, go to medical school. Thank you for your
consideration.
[SL1]Deb
– different link
