Florida Nurse Practitioners Boldly Support Republican Candidate Kim Kendall

The Florida Nurse Practitioner Network (FNPN) Backs Candidate Kendall for the Florida State House District Seat #17, Objecting to Incumbent’s Opposition to Empowering ARNP/PA Healthcare Legislation

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FL – In an unprecedented decision to oppose incumbent Doc Renuart for Florida State House District Seat #17, Florida Nurse Practitioners announce their support of candidate Kim Kendall on Friday, July 20, 2012.

            With a record of resistance toward legislation giving Florida’s Nurse Practitioners and Physician’s Assistants a broader scope of service practice, Representative Renuart’s limited plans for addressing the urgent healthcare needs of many Floridians has sent the Florida Nurse Practitioners looking for another candidate with a fresh perspective, understanding and a vision for Florida Healthcare.

            “Florida is 49th in the nation for (healthcare service) practice environment and consumer health care, and one of only 2 states left in the Union that doesn’t recognize the qualifications of Nurse Practitioners to prescribe controlled substance medications,” said Kendall. “That is not only unacceptable but unnecessary. With an untapped resource like Nurse Practitioners eager to partner with physicians, we can not only meet more of Floridians healthcare needs but also reduce the associated costs to our state.”

            In a December 2010 “Research Memorandum” from the Florida Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability on expanding the scope of practice for Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners (ARNP’s), the study estimates a significant healthcare cost savings potential for Florida. Just by expanding the scope of ARNP and Physicians Assistants (PA) in Florida, the potential cost savings in primary care, range from $7 million to $44 million annually for Medicaid, $744,000 to $2.2 million for state employee health insurance, and $339 million across Florida’s entire health care system.

            “We are eager to support Candidate Kendall because we truly feel she understands the importance of empowering Nurse Practitioners toward the full scope of their training,” said Debra Friedrich, Legislative Vice President of the Florida Nurse Practitioner Network. “Not harnessing the full resources of our Nurse Practitioners not only hinders the quality of and access to patient-care, provided in Florida but also costs our state a lot of money.”

            Despite significant cost savings to Florida residents and healthcare; an increase in affordable, available healthcare service for Floridians; and support from the Florida Senate to expand these scope-of-practice services, attempts to implement legislation in the Florida House of Representatives continues to stop at the committee level.

            “We’ve been fighting for this kind of healthcare change in Florida for 17 years now but each bill we’ve submitted fails to get out of the healthcare committee in the House, for full consideration,” added Friedrich. “We need a candidate willing to work for legislative healthcare changes that can benefit all Floridians and we feel Kim Kendall is that candidate.”

            For more candidate information, please visit www.ElectKendall.com. For more information on the Florida’s Nurse Practitioner Network, visit www.fnpn.org .