Hi All,
Can you please post a link to the actual text of these bills so we can review them rather than just the summaries?
Best,
Jo Rolls

Physician Assistant Act Amendments
https://le.utah.gov/interim/2020/pdf/00004560.pdf

Physician Assistant Mental Health Practice Amendments
https://le.utah.gov/interim/2020/pdf/00004559.pdf

Do we know how it turned out? I couldn’t get on live because I was in clinic.

The Utah medical association is going to fight back hard. She said we are asking for more than even doctors have. Not true but it is what she said. They have the MOST concern and outright issue with us losing the supervisor. She made mention of mds and DOs and yet never alluded to how the NPs practice in Utah though I would suspect as a physician and her paid role as the head of the UMA she would have some knowledge of that.

I am going to echo what I’ve said before and where I seem to take intense backlash from those in “power” while seeming to get support from the ground level in private. It’s happening just like I predicted. They , the medical association, do want to let go of the last group they have pseudo control over. Just like at the AAPA level we keep operating under this assumption that if we play nice and coy they will love us so much they will simply let us slip in “independent” or even collaborating practice. They are doctors because they are smart and I said they will see through this and it appears they have.
Now, peacemaking and love and understanding are always the best option , and this route needs to be held to as close as we always can but we are going to have to fight at some point and this is what I have been saying . They will not “let us “ have it. We have to get it.

Why? This is not about ego, or a contest between NPS and PAs. But a reality. They outnumber us 4:1 and growing. They ARE getting our jobs. I watch the employment lines like a hawk- we are losing a losing battle. They have “independent “ status in the eyes of those who hire. If I was hiring and had the choice to hire an NP who I could just “hire” without a supervisor or a PA who I have to find a supervisor for AND pay them, my choice is easy especially if I’ve been misinformed that we are trained equally.

It is career survival and job viability. This aspect alone I believe would endear us to the medical associations and I have said this. They WILL understand economics. They will NOT understand a desire to let us practice alone for the sake of it.

But we are not in the writings and did not in person mention the WHY. This needs to be essential in this debate and push. I talk to PAs all over the US. They ARE struggling. Bad. We can’t get covid jobs because of the supervisor constraint. We can’t join the new telemedicine push and growing companies because we have to have a sitter. NPs do not and they are being hired in droves. I spoke to 2 recruiters today who told me it is much easier to place NPs because out West no sitter is needed.

So we’re going to have to change the angle. This IS now about the survival of the pa profession as a strong profession. PAs right now are being pushed into specialities away from general medicine (which is being gobbled up by NPs) because they are still looking for an “assistant”. Horrible. But I’ve done the research. I’ve called and chatted and talked to people and agencies. I call the indeed ads that say MD and NPs needed. And I ask why they aren’t including PAs and it’s always always the same. ......the supervisor rule.

It’s time to fight. No, please do not see the listings on indeed and think we are fine we are not. Many are duplicate and many are “bids” by many agencies for PAs for the same job. I am talking to these people they tell me it is bleak.

It’s time to fight. It might get tough but the future PAs deserve it. Right now, I would not tell anyone to go PA as much as I love our profession. Unless we fix it. So let’s fix it