Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Competitive impact of proposed restrictions on nurses should be considered by South Carolina, FTC staff urges, (Nov 3, 2015)
Organizations Mentioned:Bureau of Competition | Bureau of Economics
By Edward L. Puzzo, J.D.
The FTC staff has issued comments on proposals under consideration by the South Carolina legislature to modify the supervision requirements for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs), the FTC announced today. The FTC staff comments on South Carolina House Bills 3508 and 3078 were sought by Jenny A. Horne of the South Carolina House of Representatives.
One of the bills, H.3508, would impose additional supervision requirements on APRNs, including a written “practice agreement” with a supervising physician for every nurse practitioner (NP), certified nurse midwife (CNM), and clinical nurse specialist (CNS).
The other bill, H. 3078, would remove certain supervision requirements now imposed on APRNs, permitting them to diagnose conditions, order tests and therapeutics, and issue written prescriptions, without a formal supervisory agreement with a particular South Carolina physician.
The staff of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning, Bureau of Economics, and Bureau of Competition opined that undue regulatory restrictions on APRN practice could impose significant competitive costs on health care consumers and third-party payors and may frustrate the development of innovative and effective models of team-based health care. The comments urge the South Carolina legislature to carefully evaluate purported safety justifications for South Carolina’s current APRN supervision requirement and additional ones that would be imposed by H.3508.
Under H.3078, APRNs would remain subject to regulatory oversight, but without certain formal physician supervision requirements now imposed under South Carolina law. “Absent countervailing safety concerns regarding APRN practice, removing these supervision requirements has the potential to benefit consumers by improving access to care, containing costs, and expanding innovation in health care delivery,” the FTC staff concluded.
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