A simple way to save time, trouble and money on health care

RALEIGH — Are you one of thousands of North Carolinians who are having a hard time getting a health appointment or even finding health care without having to travel great distances?

Newly filed legislation supported by AARP and a score of other bi-partisan organizations, could save North Carolinians time, trouble, and money when it comes to their care.

According to Forbes, North Carolina is the most expensive state for health care in the United States. Also, large areas of the state have few medical providers creating great challenges for those living in rural communities.

Senate Bill 537 and House Bill 514, both filed this week, would alleviate the shortage of health workers and let Advanced Practice Registered Nurses practice to the full extent of their training and education.

Despite the fact that all APRNs in North Carolina must have years of training, including a masters degree or PhD, many APRNs are required to contract with supervising physicians who sometimes provide very little oversight. Supervision can require no more than an occasional phone call and often the supervisor lives in another city or even state. These arrangements are often expensive to APRNs who typically have small practices.

Scores of states that have passed similar measures have seen huge cost savings and reduced administrative burdens on the most trusted professionals in health care — nurses.

"By letting nurses do the jobs they were trained to do, we can boost the supply of providers in North Carolina," explains AARP North Carolina Director Mike Olender.

Because APRNs are improving care, cutting costs and providing greater access, none of the states that allow APRNs to fully practice have gone back to the old restrictive ways," he said.

In addition to the success seen in other states with their own versions of this measure, North Carolina tested these ideas in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, and immediately after Hurricane Helene in parts of Western North Carolina.

At those times, APRNs were granted emergency waivers to practice under rules similar to this legislation. As the NC Nursing Association reports: "The North Carolina Board of Nursing reported no increase in complaints with the relaxed standards in either case, giving North Carolina two successful “test runs” of the proposed legislation."

As of March 2025, the states with full practice authority (FPA) for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs), meaning they can practice autonomously without physician supervision, include Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming.

More information about this bill is available from the NC Nurses Association. AARP encourages its members to sign up for action alerts and reach out to their lawmakers and ask them to support this common-sense measure.

CLICK HERE TO: ASK YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TO CO-SPONSOR THIS IMPORTANT BILL.

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