What You Need to Know about TNP’s Legislative Agenda
The first day of the Texas Legislative Session was January 14, 2025. In the coming weeks, stay tuned to emails and our website for live updates as we work with lawmakers to introduce the five priority bills on TNP’s legislative agenda:
Removing Delegation Barriers (Introduced! – SB 9-1-1): legislation to expand patient access to quality, local healthcare by changing outdated Texas laws requiring NPs to contract with a physician before they can practice. Removing this unnecessary and often costly barrier will allow NPs to provide care to the people who need it the most, especially in rural and medically underserved areas.
Schedule II Prescriptive Authority (Introduced! – HB 1948): legislation to extend physician-delegated Schedule II prescriptive authority to all NPs, regardless of practice setting or specialty. Texas is only one of a handful of states that does not extend Schedule II prescriptive authority to NPs, and such restrictions harm their ability to treat patients with mental health conditions, cancer, chronic disease, and other illnesses in a variety of practice settings.
Eliminating Insurance Requirement for Delegating Physicians (Introduced! – HB 1942): legislation to remove the requirement that NPs be in the same health insurance network as their delegating physician. Texas Senate Bill 654 (85R) eliminated this requirement for Medicaid/CHIP in 2017, but commercial plans were left out. Getting rid of this insurance barrier is necessary to keep pace with the growing number of NPs providing primary care in Texas and to increase network adequacy in areas with healthcare provider shortages.
Board Procedures for Complaints Against Healthcare Providers (Introduced! – HB 861): legislation requiring regulatory agencies to refer any complaints for a licensed individual to the appropriate board of jurisdiction. For example, if a complaint against an NP were submitted to the Texas Medical Board (TMB), the TMB would be required to refer this complaint to the Texas Board of Nursing, the board of jurisdiction for NPs.
Graduate Nursing Education: Legislation to increase funding and identify new opportunities to invest in graduate nursing programs, including loan repayment assistance programs for NPs, funding for graduate nursing faculty, clinical training and preceptorships, and student scholarships.
