2018 4th Quarter Legislative Update

Despite the holiday season, the FGS has been busy over the past few weeks at both the Legislature and the Board of Medicine.

In the Legislature, FGS received a commitments from Rep. Cary Pigman, M.D. and Sen. Lori Berman to sponsor our Cancer Awareness bill, and our lobbyist has an opportunity to meet with session leadership. While the House is expected to again introduce Independent Practice Bills for APRNs and PAs, we will oppose these measures and have received commitments from Senate members to protect our interests.

On the regulatory front, the news if even better. FGS and other secured a favorable ruling from the Department of Health that eliminates the need of gastroenterologists from checking the PDMP before administering drugs, even if those drugs are administered in an office or ASC setting. Moreover, the Board of Medicine has drastically reduced the administrative requirements pertaining to the prescription of acute pain medications, which will ease the administrative burdens of our doctors.

Please follow our updates throughout the legislative session, which is expected to be one of the more contentious in recent memory, as we fight to protect the business and profession of gastroenterology.