Healthcare politics are heating up in Florida this year.
Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, targeted the state's "archaic and backward" medical professional licensure regulations for much of his opening speech of the 2020 legislative session, according to local News 4 Jax.
Mr. Oliva voiced support for expanding scope-of-practice laws to allow advanced registered nurse practitioners to practice independently of physicians, the subject of a bill working its way through the Florida House right now.
The idea still faces stiff opposition from physician groups in the state and in the Senate. Many who oppose expanding scope-of-practice laws say it could create patient safety issues.
"It is a stain upon a state that prides itself on leading to even humor talk of patient safety coming from [physician] interest groups when we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt of its safety and efficacy. Or worse, to use phrases like, 'If you want to be a doctor, study to be a doctor,'" Mr. Oliva said, according to the report.
His speech also touched on broader industry issues, including a comment in which he called hospitals, medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies "the great robber barons of our time," according to News 4 Jax.
Read more here.
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