In 2019, more than 40 states introduced legislation describing the procedures, actions, and processes that a health care practitioner is permitted to undertake in keeping with the terms of their professional licensure.  This new interactive map shows recent scope of practice legislation by state.  The map was created by the National Conference of State Legislatures, supported by cooperative agreement between the Health Resources and Services Administration and the National Organizations of State and Local Health Officials. Read more here.

The Department of Health and Human Services, led by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, released the draft 2020-2025 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan for public comment. This plan, which was developed in collaboration with over 25 federal organizations, is intended to guide federal health information technology (IT) activities. Read more here.

Nurses are critical members of the immunization team and have a powerful role to play in human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. The National HPV Vaccination Roundtable created the HPV Prevention: Nurses Get it Done! toolkit as an educational resource for nurses at all practice levels to empower confident initiation and completion of the HPV vaccination series. With this toolkit, nurses have easy access to educational materials including:

• HPV 101 for immunizers
• Answers to commonly asked questions about HPV vaccination
• Tips and tools to help manage shot discomfort
• Knowledge checks and practice prompts to help learners feel confident in what they learned

Modern Healthcare reports that the number of nurse practitioners in the U.S. grew at an unprecedented rate, from around 91,000 in 2010 to 190,000 in 2017. Nurse practitioners are filling a primary care void, particularly in rural areas, offering a more convenient option for families in remote locations as fewer medical school graduates pursue family physician roles over other higher-paying specialties.

Visits to primary care providers by adults under the age of 65 dropped by nearly 25 percent from 2008 to 2016. Furthermore, adults who went at least a year without a single visit to a primary care provider increased from about 38 percent to 46 percent in that period. Read more.

Patients in Pennsylvania facing the most serious stage of cancer will no longer be forced to try cheaper drugs before their insurance covers other, more expensive treatments. The state House on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill that would abolish the heavily criticized “fail first” approach for stage IV cancer, which requires patients to show no improvement with cheaper, insurance-approved drugs before moving on to more innovative approaches.  Read more.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has published a Program Assistance Letter (PAL) recognizing the potential for telehealth to expand and improve access to health center patients. The PAL clarifies how health centers can utilize telehealth within their scope of project, how such services should be documented and when services may be considered an “Other Line of Business.” There are a number of issues that health centers need to consider when providing services via telehealth including provider licensure, informed consent, fraud and abuse laws, billing and payments and liability concerns. The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services payment policy currently limits FQHC/RHC telehealth to telepsychiatry.