The West Virginia House of Delegates is considering legislation to increase consumer access to health care services by changing regulations that deny patients' access to nurse practitioners who have the education, training and skills to provide primary care.
House Bill 4334 would provide nurse practitioners and advanced practice registered nurses flexibility by eliminating outdated and overregulated health care rules that often delay care to patients - especially in rural communities and other underserved areas.
A diverse group of stakeholders with an interest in improving health care access and delivery in our state, including AARP, the West Virginia Nurses Association, Americans For Prosperity, the Citizen Action Group and many more support this legislation as a means to provide all West Virginians access to the high quality primary care services they want and deserve.
When state leaders expanded Medicaid, it was projected that 93,000 West Virginians would enroll by 2020.
Today, West Virginia's Medicaid expansion population has far exceeded those estimates as enrollment grew by nearly 193,000 between the fall of 2013 and October 2015, representing an increase of 54 percent, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
States eliminating overregulation and providing full practice authority to nurse practitioners are estimated to save $4.2 to $8.4 billion in taxpayer dollars over ten years, directly related to the Medicaid expansion population, according to the University of Pennsylvania's Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.
With increasing demands and workload, it will be impossible for physicians to meet the demands for primary care without nurse practitioners being part of the solution. Here in West Virginia, we are facing a critical shortfall among our aging healthcare workforce.
According to the West Virginia Rural Health Association, 67 percent of osteopathic physicians over age 55 are practicing a primary care specialty.
As the physician pool becomes more limited, we must look toward modernizing health care delivery by utilizing skilled, educated and trained nurse practitioners to safely alleviate access issues in our rural communities.
Leaders in West Virginia's physician community strongly suggest that nurse practitioners and advanced practice registered nurses lack proper qualifications to provide competent direct patient care.
West Virginia's advanced practice nursing professionals must meet rigid clinical requirements well beyond their undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Nurse practitioners must annually meet national standard benchmarks and be recertified every five years.
Most nurse practitioners, on average, have been in practice for nearly 10 years and have obtained tens of thousands of clinical hours administering care.
According to recent national data, two-thirds of nurse practitioners write fewer than 75 prescriptions per week. West Virginia's physician community points to the prescription drug epidemic as a reason why nurse practitioners should not be allowed to prescribe Schedule II medications in West Virginia - one of only two states where these restrictions are still in place.
There are safeguards within this proposed legislation that would prohibit West Virginia nurse practitioners from prescribing no more than a 72-hour supply of a Schedule II medication with no refills.
Avoiding costly hospitalization is a challenge facing the nearly 300,000 West Virginians - one of every six state residents - who serve in a family caregiving role, as they tend to loved ones who want to live independently as they age, and need access to routine care in a variety of settings so they can remain at home.
States that have already removed these restrictive barriers for advance practice registered nurses have seen a 14 percent reduction in hospital admissions in the first two years after eliminating overregulation, according to a 2015 Ohio study.
West Virginia's aging population and a changing U.S. health care system will continue to present significant challenges to primary care delivery in our rural communities, as demand is starting to outweigh the supply of physicians available to provide care close to home.
The West Virginia Legislature has an opportunity to join 21 other states and the District of Columbia in planning strategically for this new demand by eliminating the overregulation of nurse practitioners and advance practice registered nurses.
Without the passage of this legislation, lawmakers and the physicians who oppose this bill are actively denying primary health care access to hundreds of thousands of West Virginia families.
Gaylene Miller is state director of AARP West Virginia.