From Randall Hagar (CPA) – Important, Timely update. AB 890 (Wood) – granting nurse practitioners practice privileges independent of physician supervision – passed out of the Assembly, its house of origin, on February 3. Of 80 members of the Assembly 61 voted AYE, one voted NAY, and 18 abstained, moving it on to the Senate. It only required 41 votes to move, so a margin of 61 votes on its face is alarming, particularly after stalling in the Appropriations Committee in 2019. However, a similar bill, SB 323 by Senate Health Chair Ed Hernandez, OD, followed a very similar path and moved handily out of its house of origin in 2015, only to fail 12 months later with a mere 4 YEA votes in committee (out of 16 votes total) in the second house – effectively killing it. I was there in committee testifying against that bill along with the CMA and many other specialty societies.
