Oklahoma Nurse Practitioners

Legislative Advocacy

ONP advocates for the advanced practice nursing profession. Executive Director, Benny Vanatta, monitors national legislative trends, regulatory issues and state legislation.

The second session of the 53rd Oklahoma Legislative starts Monday, February 6, 2012. View the bills that are being monitored this year that affect Oklahoma Nurse Practitioners.

Need information about legislation or the legislative process? Contact ONP's Executive Director, Benny Vanatta.

The Federal Stimulus Package, As It Relates to Nurse Practitioners

The $787 billion dollar federal stimulus package, signed by President Obama, includes a number of provisions which will help nurse practitioners (NPs) provide quality, cost-effective care to communities across the country. The expenditures include funding for the expansion of the health care workforce over the next one to three years, including funding for the education of primary care providers through Title VII and Title VIII (professional nursing education funding program), and the National Health Service corps scholarship and loan program.

The package includes additional funding for medical care to the underserved through state Medicaid programs. Funding to help providers who serve Medicaid patients obtain health information technology is included to stimulate the progress of electronic medical records and communication. These funds will be made available to NP practices and nurse managed clinics that serve Medicaid patients.

Unfortunately, the section focusing on a Medicare stimulus package for IT is still limited to the 1861(r) definition of physician. The good news is that there is significantly more money with no penalties in the Medicaid pot than we could get in the Medicare pot.

It is noteworthy that physicians who opt to apply for the Medicare incentive cannot also collect from the Medicaid program. While, of course, we'd like NPs to collect under all options, there are more pluses than negatives in this package. We are communicating with representatives of the committees of jurisdiction, and they are working with us on these issues. So stay tuned. We'll keep you updated on these issues.

ONP Members Meet with Congressman Boren In DC

Several members of ONP met with Congressman Boren in his Washington, DC office.

Board member, Mary Garnica, (pictured on the right side of photo) said, "We met with Representative Boren to discuss the role of NPs as key players in health care reform. Many NPs in Oklahoma take care of patients who are uninsured, underinsured, or on Medicaid and Medicare. We were able to point out specific issues that are important to our patients, such as home health care and how NPs need to be able to order home health care for their patients."

"NPs are well qualified to be primary care providers (PCP). However, some states only recognize physicians as able to perform this function in their state Medicaid programs," Mary continued.

"A change in Federal law pertaining to Medicaid could require all states to recognize NPs as PCPs, and thus improve access to care for many, especially those in rural and other underserved areas. There is need for legislation at the Federal level to ensure that NPs can do those functions," she concluded.