Prepared by Jason Prevelige, DMSc, MBA, PA-C, Legislative Committee Chair
The 2025 legislative session is shaping up to be a busy one. Only one month in and there are hundreds of bills that have been submitted for consideration. The Connecticut Academy of Physician Associates has been hard at work monitoring bills, speaking with legislators and testifying.
Priorities for this session include:
- Enacting the PA Compact in Connecticut
- Changing the official title in statutes to “physician associate”
- Modernizing statutory language to reflect the modern healthcare environment and eliminate needless administrative barriers that PAs face in practice
The PA Compact was raised as a concept by the Public Health Committee (HB 6835), meaning it was provided the opportunity to have a hearing for testimony for or against it. There was overwhelming testimony provided, by not just ConnAPA and AAPA, but also Hartford Healthcare, the Department of Defense, the Connecticut Hospital Association, the Yankee Institute, and the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. Next steps include the Public Health Committee reviewing all the testimony and voting to move it for a vote of the two legislative chambers for eventual passage. We are very optimistic that the PA Compact will be passed and signed into law this year, joining the 13 other states that have already passed it.
We have also had conversations with Committee leadership about introducing title change and modernizing language to eliminate the administrative and supervisory burdens that we are currently bound to. Currently there is no bill introduced for either of those areas, but we are hopeful we can have one moved forward, or incorporated later into a larger bill.
Additionally, there are other bills already introduced that will pertain to PAs, they include:
- The Governor’s budget (SB 1246) which would eliminate initial, temporary and renewal licensure fees for PAs
- A bill from the Governor (HB 6873) which contains elements to better protect and provide transparency to PAs during changes in health care entity acquisitions
- The ability for PAs to issue DNR orders (SB 252)
- Changes in loan repayment programs that would include eligibility for PAs when working with for-profit organizations/practices (SB 844)
- An act that would create a new loan forgiveness and tuition payment program for working in rural and underserved areas (SB 260)
Additionally ConnAPA provided testimony on HB 6834 which provides the included participants for the Connecticut Alcohol and Drug Policy Council, and as written does not include PAs as potential members. The request was made for inclusion. Similarly HB 6838 which as written does not allow PAs to certify the need for immediate treatment for substance use disorders in certain situations. Testimony was offered that such an omission is detrimental to patients and not only potentially delays care, but could lead to fatalities.
We will continue to keep the membership updated as the session progresses, with a conclusion in June.