New York state has granted nurse practitioners full practice authority, despite opposition from radiologists and other physician groups.
Gov. Kathy Hochul finalized the decision when she recently signed the state’s budget into law. New York joins 24 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing NPs to order and interpret diagnostic tests, among other powers, without requiring a written practice agreement from a physician.
The American Association of Nurse Practitioners praised the decision on Monday, April 11, believing it will increase access to care in the Empire State.
“As the 25th state with full practice authority, New York joins an expanding list of states acting to retire outdated laws that have needlessly constrained their healthcare workforce and limited patient access to care," Jon Fanning, chief executive officer of the AANP, said in a statement. “This is a no-cost, no-delay solution to strengthening healthcare for the nation.”
Physician groups including the New York State Radiological Society had advocated against the law change, contending it will jeopardize patient safety. They pointed to a 2018 JACR study, which found that nonphysician providers order substantially more diagnostic imaging, exposing patients to additional costs and unnecessary radiation.
“We are concerned that authorizing complete independent practice for nurse practitioners to provide primary care moves us away from a team-based model of healthcare delivery,” NYSRS and similar groups representing emergency physicians, pediatricians, anesthesiologists and dermatologists, wrote in a recent letter to lawmakers. “This shift represents a safety risk to patients and will lead to an increase in healthcare costs. Nurse practitioners are an essential member of the healthcare team, but they do not have training, didactic or clinical, equal to that of physicians, nor are they are not required to obtain any specialty board certification.”
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Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.