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In a report, adopted by the AMA at their 2006 annual meeting in June, the AMA Scope of Practice Partnership laid out their plans to implement a wide-range of efforts including legislative, regulatory and judicial advocacy as well as programs of information, research and education to assist states dealing with scope of practice issues this year. The AMA Scope of Practice Partnership has two top priority research projects planned for this year. The first of these studies will focus on discrediting the access to care arguments made by allied health professionals when seeking to expand their scope of practice, particularly in rural states and underserved areas. The second and more extensive study, would concentrate on completing the examination of educational/training/licensure/ethical standards/disciplinary processes/peer review and comparisons of specific allied health professionals and the medical profession. If successfully implemented, these strategies by organized medicine will make it significantly more difficult to successfully extend or expand scope of practice for those licensed health professionals who are not physicians. The end result will be to further limit access to providers who have the education and experience to provide safe quality health care services. It will also reduce the availability and choice of providers. Coalition for Patients Rights Counters AMA Activities To counter these actions of AMA and aligned physician groups, ANA joined with nursing organizations and other health care professional associations to establish the Coalition for Patients Rights (CPR) in order to share information about scope of practice developments and to create a multidimensional approach to scope of practice threats at both the state and federal levels. The Coalition for Patients Rights was formed primarily to ensure that the growing needs of the American health system can be met and that patients have access to quality health care workers of their choice. In a joint statement, Coalition members expressed their concerns about the negative impact on patients if their ability to seek care from advanced practice nurses, psychologists, nurse midwives, chiropractors, and many other licensed qualified health care providers is limited. Coalition members strongly believe that it is inappropriate for representatives of organized medicine to advise legislators, policy makers, and boards of medicine to regulate, either directly or indirectly, the scope of practice of licensed providers whose scope of practice is authorized in statutes other than medical practice acts and who are not regulated by boards of medicine. Finally, the Coalition for Patient's Rights challenges the AMA Scope of Practice Partnership members to stop their divisive tactics and join efforts to find real solutions to improve access to a wide variety of health care professionals who deliver affordable, effective healthcare to patients. The Coalition for Patient's Rights is continuing to expand and invites other health care organizations to join. For more information about the Coalition for Patient’s Rights, please visit http://www.patientsrightscoalition.org/ |