An Ohio state senator has breathed new life into a bill that would give advanced practice nurses the authority to prescribe powerful pain medications.
A similar bill passed the Ohio House of Representatives by an overwhelming 85-13 margin during the prior legislative session, but never made it to a vote in the Senate.
Senate Bill 83 would give nurses the power to prescribe refills of schedule II controlled substances, which include highly addictive drugs like oxycodone, Ritalin and morphine.
The legislation has long been advocated by the Ohio Nurses Association (ONA).
“Passage of SB 83 will remove vital barriers to practice for advanced practice nurses (APNs) in providing healthcare to patients, and helps to answer the question asked by many members of the General Assembly as to how Ohio’s healthcare delivery system can be streamlined and made more effective for safe patient care,” said Lisa Rankin, the ONA’s deputy executive director.
The last point is an important one, given the rapid rise in U.S. health costs in recent years and decades. Many in the healthcare sector, including the Institutes of Medicine, support increasing the role of nurses in patient care, which would in theory free up doctors to perform more complex, high-value tasks and potentially reduce the cost of care.
But increasing the role of APNs has generated some controversy. Many doctors groups oppose doing so, maintaining that optimal patient care depends on doctors playing a central role.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The idea of allowing nurses to prescribe schedule II controlled substances, which are highly addictive and ripe for abuse, in particular, causes doctors to feel queasy. That’s largely why the Ohio State Medical Association, the state’s trade group for doctors, opposes the measure, spokesman Jason Koma said.
“To ensure optimal patient care and help protect patient safety, allied professionals, including APNs, must provide only the services that their education and training prepared them to provide,” Koma said. “APNs do not receive the pharmacology training and education that physicians do, and allowing them to prescribe these dangerous drugs without restrictions puts patients at risk.”
Under current law, APNs can obtain a certificate giving the authority to prescribe schedule II medications, but those prescriptions are limited to a 24-hour supply for terminally ill patients and only after an initial prescription has been written by a physician, Rankin said.
More than 30 states allow APNs to prescribe medication without the restrictions that exist in Ohio, Rankin said. APNs, which number about 8,000 in Ohio, hold at least master’s degrees.
The bill was introduced by Sen. Scott Oelslager, R-North Canton.
