Assembly Panel Rejects Nurse Practitioners' Scope-of-Practice Bill; Optometry Bill to be Heard Next Week July 1, 2015 Advocacy, Politics and Medicine SB 323, SB 622, scope of practice, SFMS advocacy 0 Earlier this week, the Assembly Committee on Business and Professions rejected a bill that aimed to allow nurse practitioners to treat patients and prescribe medication—including controlled substances—without the supervision of a physician. SFMS would like to thank the eight Assemblymembers who voted against SB 323. SB 323 would have done nothing to address access to care, and absent a bar on the corporate practice of medicine, adequate physician and medical board oversight, and the extensive training necessary, this legislation would have only put Californians at risk. On July 7, the Assembly Business and Professions Committee is expected to consider SB 622, which would authorize optometrists to perform scalpel and laser surgeries, administer immunizations, and perform or order laboratory and diagnostic imaging tests. The bill would require minimal education and training. For example, optometrists are only required to complete 24 laser procedures and 25 hours of OD board-approved didactic laser course compared to years of training and experience for an ophthalmologist to perform laser procedures. SB 622 proposes expanding the optometrist scope of practice to include a wide range of services that optometrists simply do not have the education, training and experience to provide. Additionally, the bill would give surgical oversight and regulation to the California State Board of Optometry, not the Medical Board of California. The end result would be that optometrists would be held to a lower standard of care than physicians providing the same service. SFMS is asking physicians and patients to contact Assemblymember Phil Ting to urge a NO vote. SB 622 harms patient safety and does not address California’s health care shortage. Asm. Philip Ting – (916) 319-2019, assemblymember.ting@assembly.ca.gov Click here for talking points. Comments are closed.
