Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development- House

The chair sees a quorum I want to tell you all how much I appreciate you making the extra effort to be here today I know it wasn't easy those you in the audience we appreciate you too because it taken effort to. To get here period. this morning we've got a couple bills we're going to hear. Is as everyone had an opportunity that wants to speak either for or against to sign up. If you want to speak that you're right but you have to sign up so we can recognize. Okay with that said Okay. Vice chairman lance do you have anything to say this morning. I feel like a stepchild. Okay. So don't forget next Wednesday at nine forty five will be taking a group pictures so next Wednesday at nine forty five hello worry both pass. And Ellis you'll be here tomorrow Chairmen Fortner be announcing the time the place that upon retirement tomorrow sell that'll let let everybody know where you need to be if you wanna come thanks. And it just a supplement that a little bit the for that L. issue meeting we're gonna invite the whole body so everybody can come but they're coming to. Talk to us but we're gonna let everyone come in and hear about the that school and LSU and how that works for students. All right Representative Vaught you're on the agenda are you. You ready yes Sir okay are you going to present day house bill ten thirty three or we gonna skip over that one to skip over that one please all right we'll skip over ten thirty three are you prepared to present house bill eleven eighty two yes Sir and I have an amendment all right you're recognized for your members. So I needed to add a Senator to the bill so this amendment will add Senator Hill to be a co sponsor on the other hand. All right. is there any questions for on that project for. All right all in favor. I'll wait a minute we need a motion to adopt the motion do pass. The motion to adopt the amendment yes okay all in favor at any opposed. All right that's why we got smart young guy here to keep the old guy. In all yeah no comments all right now are you ready to proceed with your bill yes Sir as amended as amended yes Sir so I figure by now most you have you heard a lot about house bill eleven eighty two it is the veterinarian technician specialist bill as you're all aware Arkansas has shortage in large animal veterinarians and an abundance of livestock large livestock in our state. I believe those producers deserve and want quality veterinarian care unfortunately there aren't enough new veterinarians going into this to our state to help sustain us. and I know that I've seen for you know some people say well just adds lots to Mississippi adds lots to LSU and that that's a great idea I'm not against that idea the problem is that eight years out before we have somebody from those flights and they may not come back to Arkansas after they're in those states we have to keep account kind of for that to the number of years that it would take to get someone out in and out of school I'm in with our average age of of large animal veterinarians being fifty five plus you can see that we need to do something sooner rather than later and. I've been working with both sides of of the on this bill I've had. Comments from each side that they want this and they want that so that I gave Arkansas B. M. A. everything they ask for with the exception of they wanted to take out out all the prescriptive authority and I will go through the bill in a minute and show you where there's restrictions around that already in place I felt is important for us to leave that in there just in case the federal government does approve certain restricted drugs and that's why we won't have to wait for a session to come back and run a bill or we won't have to be asking for a special session and it'll be the trigger that allows them to just go ahead and do those things In this bill I have a definition of collaborative practice agreements and I've added the definition of that practice of this bill in no way no way allows anyone to hang their own shingle. And also that in the bill in just a few seconds also and a bit that doesn't want to use these veterinarian technician specialist they don't have to Hiram but this is something that rule veterinarians that deal with nothing but large are mainly large animals this is something that's very appealing to those of veterinarians I I should also mention that the veterinarian technician specialist board certification can only be attained after a minimum of five years of clinical experience as a credit of credentialed technician or technologist so on average the combination for this person and combination of school that they will get will be seven to nine years it's not like this is going to be a flip around either it will help these people who didn't get accepted a veterinarian school I think those that want to do something in this field but they don't want to go to that school this might be appealing to those that would like to work in this in this industry also. so on average it's a combination of seven to nine years of education and clinical experience that is required prior to application so they can't even apply for this until they've served this time just so you understand have this education They have to log in a minimum of fifty cases and complete for in depth were case reports within the application year so they've got to do fit they've got to do all of that in one year one. As so I will I kind of wanted to give you a little bit a backdrop on. To become a nurse practitioner it takes less years to become a nurse practitioner than it does to be this so it's not like we're not giving we're giving less education were actually educating them more than what even a nurse practitioner would have to get And I will say the tech the veterinarian checked. Specialist. They are not I mean I didn't give them all that they wanted either. So I tried to come into the middle figure out something that was good for Arkansas and far livestock producers that would benefit everybody so it's not like I gave one group all that they wanted and the other group only partial of what they wanted to really try to find middle ground for everybody and hopefully that we can get something passed If you look in the bill if you're if you don't mind put the bill I know a lot has been said about the supervision part of the bill and if you'll go to page three line sixteen it says a veterinarian technician specialist shall perform specialized veterinary technology under the direction supervision and responsibility of the last send veterinarian. You can see again they cannot hang their own shingle they are still under meet the veterinarian in the veterinarian is the one who is responsible for that case load M. if you go down to. line twenty three it says supervision of a veterinarian technician specialists may be direct supervision indirect supervision and immediate supervision a veterinarian who utilizes indirect supervision of a veterinarian technology specialist shall you'll notice the word shall retain control of the authority over the care of the animal patient and review all the recordkeeping and note notes documented by the veterinarian technician specialist on the charts regarding the care of the animal patient. So as you can see the bet is still in control of this animal so this isn't like they can just go out and do what they want to do without have and some boundaries on them alasan veterinarian if you go down to thirty three yeah go down to thirty six this subsection does not relieve a veterinarian technician specialist at the responsibility or liability of any of his or her own axe so the the part about it I was talking about the bet still encrusting control of the animal this is a way to make sure if we keep that parameters surrounded like that it's a way to make sure that the bat that this will not be abused because again I can't go hang their own shingle they start to be under collaborative with the veterinarian and it says that the birds the veterinarian would be response but it also says that it does not relieve a veterinarian technologist bachelor's of any responsibilities or liabilities for his or her own acts and omissions if you look to the next line a licensed veterinarian shall not again shall not this that us establish a separate office or clinic in a location other than his or her regular office and place. the separate office or call clinic under the control or supervision of a veterinarian technician specialist again they can not hang their own shingle they have to be within that practice for that but Merion is that I know that there's been a lot of emails about how that how this could be a bat could just start opening up clinics everywhere we could have somebody from New York open up a bit clinic here it states in the bill also that it has to be some of that clinic from Arkansas so this again is a tie at nyet perimeter that says only this way can we do this okay so if you'll go down How it may still Missy. If you'll go down to line eighteen on page four it's as a veterinarian shall not enter into a collaborative practice agreement with more than three veterinarian technician specialist at one time so again they can't have practices all over Arkansas where there of abusing this they can only have three of these people even underneath them at one time so again that's very tight knit can't be abused very tight knit if you will go down to line thirty six on page four if a collaborative practice results in complaints of violation of this.