AzNA tracks bills based on our Public Policy Agenda. This agenda focuses on the health of all Arizonans and the professional practice and work environment of our Arizona nurses.

February 12, 2018-

The Legislative session is moving full throttle with lengthy committee hearings as next week is the last week for bills to be heard by a committee in the house in which they were introduced (their house of origin). If they don't receive a hearing and pass out of the committee, generally they are "Dead", though on occasion are revived, which we will review in the future.

One theme this session has been a push to reduce occupational licensing requirements, including the outright elimination of licensing boards. We are closely monitoring those bills and two (1184 and 1470) are included in this week's highlights.

S1184 state compact; temporary professional licenses would require that someone who is licensed in another state receive, within 30 days of application, a temporary license to work in Arizona for 18 months with some safeguards such as background checks. AzNA testified of our concern that this could interfere with the Arizona Nursing Licensure Compact that so many nurses enjoy in Arizona. While the bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Commerce Committee, the testimony of AzNA along with the input of other groups resulted in the sponsor agreeing to an amendment that will set up the structure of the temporary license process but will only apply to professions that will be added later after input by those professions. Thus we will work to make sure the Nursing Compact is not adversely impacted.

Progress: Made it out of the Senate Commerce Committee, must pass through the Senate Rules Committee in order for it to reach the Senate floor. As of this update, the SB 1184 is not on the agenda to be heard in the rules committee.

AzNA Position: Monitor.

S1470 sunrise process; health professionals; modifications would make a number of changes to the sunrise process which allows for the expansion of scopes of practice and the creation of new licensed professional groups (see 1377 below). NOTE: AzNA used the sunrise process for our CRNA legislation. This bill would essentially eliminate the current process and put it all in the regular legislative session with new standards on how these bills are to be reviewed.

Progress: Passed out of Senate Government Committee last week. On the agenda this week for Senate Rules Committee.

AzNA Position: Monitor for now. Still collecting information and input from our members.

S1377 dental therapy; licensure; regulation would allow the licensing of dental therapists, a new type of dental provider who would be supervised by a dentist but could perform basic dental treatments. This bill has faced fierce opposition from dentists and last year did not make it out of the Sunrise process. However, this year successfully made it through that process and has now passed narrowly out of Senate Health & Human Services Committee. The fight continues.

AzNA Position: We continue to monitor this bill. When a new professional role is introduced into the legislature, it often takes years to educate and build support. It is not unlike the experience we have had on our journey for full practice authority for our APRN’s