Federal News & Legislative Updates via CPA and CMA
AB 890, nurse practitioner independent practice
Not official, AB 890 likely heard in committee on July 13th. Act now. CPA’s letter is in. CMA and the opposition coalition have issued an alert. See and act on it here. But. Important you focus on this Committee: The Senate and Business and Professions Committee. See below for how. Back to business. Advocacy [...]
AB890 Update
Nurse practitioner practice without standardized procedures. The coalition organized by the CMA to defeat AB 890 is completing a series of meetings with key staff of legislators who sit on the Senate Business and Professions Committee. Those meetings conveyed the opposition to the bill from CMA and 9 specialty medical [...]
Scope of practice
Congressional Action Needed. See the APA ACTION Alert here. California clinical psychologist (former member of the California Assembly, now member of Congress) Judy Chu (D, Pasadena) is promoting psychologist scope of practice expansion within Medicare. Her current bill in Congress (H.R. 884) would amend Medicare to include psychologists within the definition of physician, and [...]
Black Lives Matter
Social issues, a mostly new domain for the house of medicine, and psychiatry in particular. Last several years many policy conversations focused on the social determinants of health and mental health. One of them - gun violence. In response, CPA adopted an expanded policy platform on gun violence. Black Lives Matter elevates [...]
Following up
CPA president-elect Shannon Suo, MD, wrote to point out that in addition to the proposed shutdown of the Proposition 56 loan repayment program, primary care residency expansion funding was cut in the May Revised budget. Indirectly affecting psychiatry, reducing further the number of primary care physicians who treat and refer [...]
Proposition 56 gutted
Governor Newsom’s May revised budget repurposes $1.3 billion in cigarette taxes, ending the associated $300,000 per physician loan repayment program. Last year, 270 physicians benefited, including 38 psychiatrists. Average practice achieved 60% Medi-Cal – the targeted policy objective was 30% so, wildly successful. Supplemental payments to physicians for those patients [...]