Pennsylvania Senators Renew Bipartisan Push to Let Nurse Practitioners Care for Patients Without Being Tethered to Doctors

A bipartisan pair of Pennsylvania senators plan to renew their long quest to let nurse practitioners care for patients without contractual tethers to doctors, and an advocate says the state’s experience with the COVID-19 pandemic may help them. Sens. Camera Bartolotta and Lisa Boscola — a Washington County Republican and a Northampton County Democrat — said they will refile a bill that eradicates the requirement nurse practitioners have collaboration agreements with two doctors. They called them “archaic restrictions” that “no longer reflect modern medicine.” Instead, their bill will call for practitioners to fulfill a three-year, 3,600-hour physician collaboration period. After that, they would be free to provide care independently in their specific areas of expertise.

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