As you know, Governor Cuomo introduced a modified version of the Nurse Practitioners Modernization Act as part of his 2014-15 Executive Budget released on January 22nd, 2014. The budget process then calls for both the Assembly and Senate to establish their "One–House" positions, generally introducing bills or resolutions outlining where they agree with or have changes to the Governor's proposed budget.

Tonight, we are extremely happy to report that both the Assembly and Senate included modified versions of the Governor's proposal in their one-house bills and resolutions! This is a significant step forward and acknowledgement of the work The NPA and its members have done advocating for the profession.

What happens next? Since there are essentially 3 different versions of the proposal, intense negotiations will soon be underway between the Executive, Assembly and Senate to arrive at agreeable language. The next 2 weeks will be critical to ensure the budget passes "on-time" by March 31st, 2014. In addition, many other proposals regarding all sorts of important issues ranging from health and education to transportation and the environment are being negotiated.

At this time, it is important for us not to focus on the differences between the Assembly and Senate proposals. The NPA's Governmental Affairs team has been charged with helping to ensure that the final version resembles the Governor's proposal, resulting in nurse practitioners with more than 3600 hours of practice no longer needing a written practice/collaborative agreement with a physician, as a condition of practice.

Let us take a brief moment to congratulate our members, GA team, and stakeholders who played a key role getting us to this stage. We will continue to work to have New York adopt a meaningful version of the NPMA that we can all be proud of. The NPA will continue to update our members with any grassroots efforts or action alerts necessary to ensure this goal is achieved.

Sincerely,
Denis Tarrant, MS, ANP-BC
President

Joy Elwell, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP
Governmental Affairs Chair & Treasurer

Stephen Ferrara, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP
Executive Director