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Expanding Access to Care: Scope of Practice Laws

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Kathleen Hoke  and
Sarah Hexem
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Abstract

Allied health professionals play an integral role in providing safe, affordable care to communities in need. Laws that define the permissible scope of practice for these professionals may take full advantage of these providers and may unnecessarily restrict safe and effective care. Nurse practitioners in many states may provide care independent of a physician; research reveals that this care is safe, affordable and accessible. Yet hurdles exist that prevent communities from securing the full benefit of NPs in independent practice. The scope of independent practice for allied dental providers varies greatly across the country, often including stringent supervision requirements. Emerging approaches to allowing allied dental providers to practice independently in certain settings or with dentist supervision via telemedicine and creating the intermediate provider, the dental therapist, may increase access to safe, affordable dental care. Research on the impact of laws that allow broader independent practice by NPs to ferret out the hurdles to full implementation of the spirit of such laws is needed. That research could support expanded independent scope for allied dental providers and other allied health care providers.

Type
Symposium Articles
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 45 , Issue S1: 2016 Public Health Law Conference — Lead, Connect, Innovate: Strategies for Achieving Health Equity , Spring 2017 , pp. 33 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2017

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