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Posted October 28. 2009
The Ohio Legislature is considering a bill to allow NPs to prescribe schedule II controlled substances. HB 206 was introduced at the request of the Ohio Association of Advanced Practice Nurses (OAAPN), said Lori Herf, lobbyist for the OAAPN. The bill was assigned to the House Health Committee for consideration in late September.
Primary sponsors are Rep. Barbara Boyd, chairwoman of the House Health Committee, and Rep. Scott Oelslager, who also sits on the committee. The bill had several hearings prior to that committee assignment. As a result of that testimony, an amendment was offered to prohibit NPs from prescribing schedule II controlled substances in convenient care clinics.
"The Ohio State Medical Association [OSMA] made that their primary issue in committee, but apparently may still oppose the bill," Herf said. The OSMA requested a provision to specify the locations where NPs could prescribe the drugs (hospitals and hospice care).
"What we have to understand is that there is inevitably going to be health care reform nationally, and when you have that kind of expansion, we must change the way we do business in the healthcare community," Boyd told MedCityNews.com. Boyd said she planned to get the bill out of her committee "as soon as possible," and predicted that bipartisan support was likely.
Herf said that passage of the bill would help NPs to more effectively manage a number of patient situations. "It will improve patient access, facilitate management of children with ADHD and promote therapeutic rest. It may decrease the need for obstetric intervention. It will also promote comfort at the end of life. Passage of the bill will improve patient safety because it decreases the need for verbal orders, facilitates patient access and improves patient outcomes."
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