FLANP CALL TO ACTION: WE NEED YOUR IMMEDIATE HELP!

In the last 72 hours, FLANP has become aware of a proposed bill for the upcoming session that threatens not only the Florida Nurse Practitioners ability to own and operate their own practices, but it will also devastate access to care for tens of thousands of Floridians across the state if it passes. 

House Representative Kelly Skidmore and Senator Bobby Powell are sponsoring and have filed the bills (HB 345 and SB 316), coming as the Florida Medical Association (FMA) reports that more than half of physicians are employees in their practice and have no ownership stake. See Senate Bill 316 (2024) - The Florida Senate (flsenate.gov) and House Bill 345 (2024) - The Florida Senate (flsenate.gov). These bills propose that no person or entity should own a medical practice except a physician, or a physician must own stake in ownership. This bill would also threaten and contradict bill 607 which gave Florida Nurse Practitioners autonomous practice and was written into law on March 11, 2020.

It is believed that these two legislators are targeting "corporate owned practices" and may have overlooked how their bill will affect non-corporate medical business owners if this bill were to pass, mainly Florida Nurse Practitioners. They have articulated that this is being done in an effort to increase the number of Physicians in Florida as an answer to the physician shortage. FLANP actually believes that it will do the opposite and create an even bigger problem for our Florida healthcare system.

FLANP is poised to be ahead of this bill introduction and to move quickly and swiftly to voice our opposition and to educate these legislators on how this can negatively impact the efforts not only to gain Full Practice Authority for Florida NPs but will create a critical crisis of access to care for Floridians.

FLANP is aware that there are numerous NP-owned and operated businesses across the state. If you are one of these individuals, please submit your name, name of your business, number of patients served, physical location, and whether or not you employ a physician.

Submit your business information NOW!

The information gathered will be used to educate representatives in Tallahassee on exactly how many clinics/medical practices this would directly affect.

Please note, TIME IS CRITICAL for this CALL TO ACTION, as FLANP will be bringing this information directly to Capitol Hill in Tallahassee on Tuesday, November 14th for the 4:00pm public workshop that will be hosted by the Senate chamber's Health Policy Committee on behalf of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo's "Live Healthy" initiative. If you reach the above link after November 14th, please still submit your information as FLANP will continue to gather data as we navigate this legislative session.

Senate President Kathleen Passidomo has made eliminating barriers to health care access a top priority for the 2024 Session.

She added that one of the primary goals of her iniitiative is "growing Florida's health care workforce."

The Senate President is concerned because state Department of Health (DOH) data shows there were 58,062 full-time physicians actively practicing in Florida in 2022. On average those doctors were aged 53. And 33% of them were over the age of 60, according to DOH.

Another study shows that Florida faces a potential shortfall of nearly 18,000 physicians by 2035. The numbers are similarly gloomy for nurses - a similar study reported that in 2019, Florida's registered nurse (RN) workforce was11,500 shy of what was needed and that the state was also short by 5,600 licensed practical nurses (LPNs).

The deficits are projected to grow over the next decade, too, with the shortfalls potentially rising to 37,400 and 21,700 for RNs and LPNs, respectively.

"It is clear to me that we have work to do to make sure Florida's health care workforce is growing - just like the rest of our state," she wrote in the memo.

FLANP plans to be at this meeting and to speak out, also citing how we can be a solution as part of her initiative. FLANP also plans to bring awareness that the proposed HB 345 and SB 316 is in DIRECT CONFLICT with this initiative. This meeting in in open public forum and any FLANP member or other nurse practitioner is welcome to attend. In fact, we encourage it. Several of the FLANP board members will be in attendance as well as our lobbyist, Chris Floyd.

If you cannot attend the proceedings, it can be watched on the FL Channel. Go to FLsenate.gov to see the daily Video Broadcast Schedule. Scroll to the Health Policy meeting at 4:00pm on 11/14/2023 and click. You can watch and listen from there.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please email admin@flanp.org.